[jacques_chester]

Again, why should the Swiss do another country's homework? Enforcing someone else's laws is not their job. They will honour judgements or warrants issued from the benches of most countries, but they're hardly going to just give up secrecy because somebody somewhere is annoyed at them.

Neutrality requires secrecy. If you favour one group with disclosure and not another group, you're no longer strictly neutral. You have to treat everyone identically or it no longer works. That means that you are the refuge of scoundrels and a bulwark of liberty. The Swiss have decided entirely reasonably that that's what they want.

[ubernostrum]

Well, the way I'd phrase it is that the Swiss have realized that a sense of morals shouldn't get in the way of making a lot of money.

[jacques_chester]

You're putting the cart before the horse.

The Swiss desire peace. In their history they've suffered from some stunning little civil wars. In order to obtain and retain peace, they have amongst other things decided on a policy of strict neutrality. They can in part uphold this because of their geopolitical position in Europe -- an almost perfect natural fortress. It is easy to defend and they can keep themselves in food and water more or less indefinitely.

As a consequence of neutrality and defensibility, their country has natural competitive advantages in banking. Complaining about the Swiss being good at banking is like complaining about the USA being good at farming. In both cases natural features and political history have pretty much made certain outcomes more or less inevitable.