prenosimo i dijelom prevodimo članak iz Haaretza ( i Reutersa)

Swiss lawmakers relax banking secrecy for Holocaust funds

U Švicarskoj su donosioci zakona umanjili "tajnu" za fondove Holokausta

The secrecy rules would only be waived if the bank could prove it had repeatedly failed to reach the account's owner or the beneficiaries

ZURICH - Swiss lawmakers voted on Wednesday to relax strict secrecy laws to make it easier to liquidate unclaimed accounts held in Swiss banks, a major step forward in efforts to deal with wealth hidden by Jews from the Nazis during World War II.

On Wednesday, the lower house of the Swiss parliament made a breakthrough, agreeing to suspend secrecy rules in order to allow unclaimed funds to be moved to another bank and liquidated without an account holder's approval.

Švicarski "zakonodavci" su u srijedu glasali za ublažavanje  striktnog zakona o tajnosti banaka,  kako bi omogućili  likvidaciju "netraženih" računa u švicarskim bankama, što je  glavni korak
u rješavanju pitanja  bogatstva koje su Židovi sakrili od nacista u toku II. svjetskog rata.

U srijedu  se donji dom Švicarskog parlamenta složio da suspendira pravila o tajnosti kako bi omogućio da se "netraženi" računi prenesu u druge banke i likvidiraju bez dozvole nosioca računa.

dalje čitajte sami ovaj važni članak

Though Switzerland's UBS and Credit Suisse reached a $1.25 billion deal with Holocaust survivors and their descendants in 1998, the Swiss government has spent years attempting to amend banking secrecy laws to try to deal with unclaimed accounts.

The secrecy rules would only be waived if the bank could prove it had repeatedly failed to reach the account's owner or the beneficiaries.

Switzerland's upper house has yet to vote on the changes.

The 1998 settlement followed three years of wrangling between Holocaust victims and their descendants and Swiss banks over the fate of funds deposited in Swiss banks by Jews during World War II.

Swiss banking secrecy has come under renewed pressure in recent years, forcing Switzerland to relax its banking laws in certain areas and pledge to pursue tax evasion as well as outright fraud.

Switzerland is currently grappling with a U.S. crackdown on wealthy Americans hiding funds from the Internal Revenue Service after U.S. prosecutors indicted Swiss private bank Wegelin over allegations it had helped hide money belonging to U.S. citizens trying to avoid taxes.

Switzerland is also seeking to head off European Union pressure to make its banking system more transparent with a series of withholding tax deals and lump-sum payments.

Swiss officials recently pledged a clean-money strategy, and are now seeking to ensure that private bankers do not deal with funds that have not been taxed.