The central bankers of the EU have brought about a directive that stops citizens avoid taxes on the interest they receive from their offshore savings. This is known as the Savings Tax Directive, which requires all EU member states, territories and associates to provide the EU with personal and financial information regarding all clients who are receiving interest on their offshore deposits. This destroys the banking privacy laws in many jurisdictions, such as Jersey, the Isle of Man, Guernsey, etc.

Fortunately, Switzerland has been able to reach an agreement which allows the Swiss to remit the tax on interest without revealing the private and personal information about the depositor. Without such an agreement, it is highly likely that Switzerland would quickly have been in crisis in regards to offshore banking.

The reality of this Savings Tax Directive is that the choices for confidential banking, in particular for businesses, have been dramatically slashed.