Working visit of State Secretary Gasser in Middle East - Switzerland signs joint declaration on introduction of AEOI with Israel

Bern, 01.12.2016 - From 28 to 30 November, on a working visit the State Secretary for International Financial Matters Jörg Gasser met his counterparts from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia as well as representatives from these two countries' supervisory authorities and central banks. Shortly before this, Jörg Gasser made a working visit to Israel where he signed a joint declaration on the introduction of the automatic exchange of information (AEOI) in tax matters on a reciprocal basis between Switzerland and Israel. Both countries intend to start collecting data in accordance with the global AEOI standard in 2018 and to exchange it from 2019 onwards.

The aim of State Secretary Jörg Gasser's working visit to the UAE and Saudi Arabia was to intensify dialogue and cooperation in financial and tax matters with these important partner states of Switzerland. In the context of the talks, an exchange took place on the international work to develop and implement global standards as well as on topics to do with financial market policy. Matters raised included the positions in international financial bodies and the matter of improving the framework conditions for Swiss financial service providers.

In Israel, the trip was used to raise the issues of international initiatives in financial and tax matters and regulatory issues and to discuss closer bilateral cooperation also in the area of market access. The close cooperation with Israel was underlined by the signing of a joint declaration on the implementation of the AEOI standard. Switzerland is thus strengthening its network of AEOI partner states. Israel meets in particular the high demands in terms of adherence to the principle of speciality and the safeguarding of confidentiality for the data delivered, which are prerequisites for the introduction of the AEOI. From a legal viewpoint, the automatic exchange of information with Israel will be implemented based on the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (MCAA). The MCAA is based on the international standard for the exchange of information developed by the OECD.

Address for enquiries

Beat Werder, Head of Communications, State Secretariat for International Financial Matters SIF
Tel. +41 58 469 79 47, beat.werder@sif.admin.ch