Federal Council adopts dispatch on automatic exchange of information with Singapore, Hong Kong and other financial centres

Bern, 09.05.2018 - During its meeting on 9 May 2018, the Federal Council adopted the dispatch on approving the agreements on the automatic exchange of financial account information (AEOI) with Singapore and Hong Kong. The Federal Council is proposing the introduction of the AEOI with other financial centres to Parliament with the same dispatch.

In October 2017, the Federal Council decided to apply the agreements with Singapore and Hong Kong provisionally as at 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 schedule could be met. With the current proposal, the Federal Council is now requesting Parliament's authorisation to ratify the two agreements. At the same time, the Federal Council is proposing the option of implementing the AEOI with Singapore and Hong Kong based on the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement; MCAA). This solution takes account of the latest developments in Singapore and Hong Kong and would allow the implementation of the AEOI on a multilateral basis.

It is also important for the Swiss financial sector that the AEOI be introduced with all competing financial centres, thereby ensuring a level playing field worldwide. The Federal Council is thus proposing to activate the AEOI with other financial centres on a multilateral basis (MCAA) from 2019. The first sets of data should be exchanged from 2020.

The vast majority of the financial centres with which the Federal Council wishes to introduce the AEOI apply the AEOI in a non-reciprocal manner (Anguilla, Bahamas, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Nauru). These countries provide data, but refrain from data deliveries from their agreement partners. The AEOI is to be introduced on a reciprocal basis with Panama. This also applies to the Caribbean overseas communities of the Netherlands (Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba), which are not covered by the scope of the existing AEOI agreement with the EU. The Federal Council intends to apply the review mechanism adopted by Parliament in December 2017 by analogy to all of the new AEOI partner states mentioned.


Address for enquiries

Anne Césard, Communications, State Secretariat for International Financial Matters SIF
Tel. +41 58 462 62 91, anne.cesard@sif.admin.ch



Publisher

The Federal Council
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Federal Department of Finance
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