The Swiss parliament has just voted to stop Swiss citizens from being told whenever foreign investigators are looking at their accounts.

The Swiss parliament has just passed an amendment to some existing legislation to stop Swiss citizens from being told whenever foreign investigators are looking at their accounts. The vote was in line with some threats that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development issued to the Swiss in 2011. Investigations will soon be as clandestine as the investigators please.

The ‘tipping off’ rule, by which it is illegal for an investigator or money laundering reporting officer to tell a customer that his account is being investigated, is an analogous rule that has been common throughought the European Union for many years. This new rule - an amendment of the Tax Administrative Assistance Act - seems to operate along the same lines. A further vote of some sort is needed to enter the reform onto the statute book, but this is said to be a formality.