BERN: In a key development over the issue of the wealth stashed to abroad, the Swiss parliament has approved the automatic exchange of bank data to 18 more countries including Pakistan from year 2021, according to a media report. The Swiss Senate followed the House of Representative’s lead and approved a new batch of countries for automatic exchange of financial information (AEOI) including Pakistan, a Swiss newspaper reported. This means Switzerland will provide the complete bank data held by the citizens of these countries. In return, Switzerland will receive information on banking details of accounts held by Swiss citizens in these countries. These 18 countries are Pakistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Brunei, Dominica, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Macau, Maldives, Nigeria, Niue, Oman, Peru, Samoa, Saint Martin, Trinidad and Tobago and Vanuatu, the report said. Turkey was also up for consideration, but the Senate decided it was not yet ready for automatic exchange. So far, Switzerland receives financial data from 75 countries and shares the bank data with 63, the report said. Recently the Swiss authorities revealed that they had provided details of around 3.1 million bank accounts held by foreigners to their countries of origin or residence. In return, it received information on banking details of around 2.4 million accounts held by Swiss citizens or residents in 75 countries.
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