Credit Suisse has appointed a former general counsel at Switzerland’s financial regulator to develop its tax compliance strategy, signalling the importance of this issue in the current climate.

Credit Suisse has appointed a former general counsel at Switzerland’s financial regulator to develop its tax compliance strategy, the Zurich-listed bank announced today.

Urs Zulauf, former general counsel at FINMA, “will be supporting Credit Suisse in further developing and implementing its business policy regarding the tax compliance of client assets”, the bank said in a statement.

The announcement comes at a time when Swiss banks face pressure on the country’s historic bank secrecy laws and demands for greater disclosure about undeclared foreign money. Switzerland is estimated to be home for more than $2.2 trillion of offshore money, or about 26 per cent of the world total, industry figures show.

“Credit Suisse has clearly focused its global business policy in private banking on taxed client assets and complies with the rapidly developing Swiss and international legal requirements,” the bank said.

Zulauf who will join the bank on 1 February next year, reporting to Romeo Cerutti, general counsel, and Hans-Ulrich Meister, joint head private banking and wealth management and CEO for Region Switzerland.

He was a member of the executive board of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority until the end of January 2013.