61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

Foreign investors desired security and stability, and the Swiss financial centre
offered both. The structure of its political institutions and the country’s
standing in the international community created the confidence, which went
beyond the technical financial and currency aspects, to make Switzerland one of
the most important centres for long-term capital movements.
It is an observable fact that the Swiss financial system was to a high degree
domestically accepted, due to its capacity to combine its role in the national
economy with an international expansion in an optimum manner. There was a
tight network of banks at cantonal and also at communal level which took
advantage of the local savings potential. As a stronghold for flight capital, the
Swiss economy achieved a high level of liquidity on the financial markets,
despite ongoing capital exports, thus guaranteeing low interest rates. The large
banks also acted as «gears» between capital export and export financing activities
for industry and enabled the growth of more intensive value-added industries
far above the capacity of the Swiss domestic markets. Assets of Swiss
investors abroad (which by far exceeded the assets of foreign nationals in
Switzerland) boosted the income statement and made a significant contribution
– along with tourism – to funding the notoriously passive balance of trade and
squaring the Swiss balance of payments in the long term. Despite conflicts and
points of friction, the strong currency and efficient financial centre proved
beneficial to the whole economy. 10
The banks were able to retain autonomy in their operations throughout the
entire period from 1933 to 1945. This was not a matter of course, as the efforts
to restore a free world market with convertible currencies in the 1920s were
dealt a severe blow by the onset of the worldwide economic crisis. 1931 was a
turning point; the transition to exchange controls in Germany and the
departure of British sterling from gold parity were signs of a disintegration of
the worldwide economy which gathered breathtaking momentum in the subsequent
years. Banks in Switzerland (particularly the Swiss Volksbank) also found
themselves in severe crises and were only saved with help from the Confederation,
i.e., from the state. In return (indirectly) for the state recovery measures,
the banks had to consent to the creation of the first Swiss banking law. However,
the banks participated actively in shaping this legislation, and its form, when
passed in parliament, hardly restricted the financial centre’s scope for
manoeuvre. 11 The introduction of banking secrecy, which was enforceable under
criminal law, significantly increased the discretion of business transactions and
precluded investigations of foreign states into the financial situations of their
citizens. In this way, the financial centre developed into an international
financial management centre and this became the most significant, long-term
development in Switzerland between the First and Second World Wars. 12
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