Brussels: Pressure has started mounting on Switzerland after the controversial leaks disclosed information about the hidden wealth of thousands of account holders from across the world.
On Monday, the main political grouping in the European Parliament called for a review of Switzerland’s banking practices and the country’s inclusion into the “EU’s dirty-money blacklist.”
The leaks had unearthed thousands of shady and criminal account holders in the leading private investment bank Credit Suisse.
However, on Monday, the European People Party called on the EU commission to “re-evaluate Switzerland as a high-risk money-laundering country” as part of the next review of the list.
The European Commission, on the other hand, declined to give any comment on the EPP’s statement citing the reason that the list had been updated last month and no time had been given for the next review.
The EPP’s coordinator on economic affairs Markus Ferber said, “the ‘Swiss Secrets’ findings point to massive shortcomings of Swiss banks when it comes to the prevention of money laundering.”
Ferber also added that when Swiss’ banks fail to apply the international money-laundering standards, the country itself becomes high-risk jurisdiction.
The EU’s current blacklist include countries Iran, Syria and North Korea.
No European country is currently on the infamous blacklist.
