Govt targets deposits of Greek citizens in Swiss banks

A meeting was held on Thursday at the Maximos Mansion between the Minister of State Nikos Pappas, the official responsible for combating corruption Panagiotis Nikoloudis and the Swiss State Secretary for International Financial and Tax Matters in the FDF Jacques De Watteville, in order to discuss ways to check if money exported to Swiss banks was legally taxed.

Although the issue of Greek deposits in Swiss banks is old news, the Greek government believes that international law to combat tax evasion and money laundering has not been exhausted in this case.

The new SYRIZA government estimates that substantial amounts of money by Greek citizens has been deposited in Switzerland.

Of course, Swiss banking authorities have in the past been less than thrilled about opening the lid to the country’s very confidential banking procedures.

According to government sources, De Watteville, cited a lack of interest by Greek authorities over the past period on the specific issue.

Specifically, he said only 15 requests for the collection and transfer of tax data was made by the former government.

In Thursday’s meeting, the need of much tighter cooperation between the Greek and Swiss Banks was raised on tax issues, as well as the control of bank deposits and assets of Greek citizens in Switzerland.