Regulation on international administrative assistance (9 May 2018)
Silvia Hunziker
Marco Gehrig
At its meeting on 9 May 2018, the Federal Council adopted the dispatch on the approval of the agreements on the automatic exchange of information on financial accounts (AIA) with Singapore and Hong Kong. With the same dispatch, the Federal Council is proposing to parliament the introduction of the AIA with other financial centres. In October 2017, the Federal Council decided to apply the agreements with Singapore and Hong Kong provisionally as of 1 January 2018 and to exchange account information with these countries for the first time in autumn 2019. This was the only way to ensure that the timetable could be adhered to. With the current proposal, the Federal Council is now asking the Federal Assembly for authorisation to ratify the two agreements. At the same time, the Federal Council is proposing as an option to implement the AIA with Singapore and Hong Kong based on the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) on the automatic exchange of information on financial accounts. This solution takes into account the latest developments in Singapore and Hong Kong and would allow the AIA to be implemented on a multilateral basis.
It is also important for the Swiss financial sector that the AIA is introduced with all competing financial centres. This will ensure that a level playing field exists worldwide. The Federal Council therefore proposes that the AIA be activated with other financial centres on a multilateral basis (MCAA) from 2019. The first data should be exchanged from 2020.
The vast majority of the financial centres with which the Federal Council wishes to introduce AIA apply AIA in a non-reciprocal manner (Anguilla, Bahamas, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Nauru). These countries provide data, but do not provide data from their agreement partners. With Panama, the AIA is to be introduced on a reciprocal basis. This also applies to the Caribbean overseas communities of the Netherlands (Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba), which are not subject to the scope of the existing AIA agreement with the EU. The Federal Council intends to apply the review mechanism approved by parliament in December 2017 by analogy to all the new AIA partner states mentioned.
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Media release SIF of 9.5.2018, Federal Council adopts dispatch on automatic exchange of information with Singapore, Hong Kong and other financial centres;
Federal Resolution AIA Agreement Hong Kong;
Federal Resolution AIA Agreement Singapore;
Federal Decrees introducing AIA with additional financial centres;
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