The Germans concerned are all customers of the Zurich branch of Coutts, the private banking arm of Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). “We are aware of the continued media speculation regarding a potential breach of client data secrecy at Coutts,” the bank is quoted in a Financial Times report. “Following thorough investigation, we have no evidence to suggest any such breach has taken place.”
But it isn’t the first time that this has happened. Two years ago several German states, including North Rhine-Westphalia, bought a similar CD. At the time, the FT reported, “German officials have said the CD contains 1,000-1,500 names of Swiss account holders, and they estimate possible takings in back taxes and fines at more than €100m ($140m, £90m). Tax offices are already seeing people confess to secret accounts, they said.”
According to Der Spiegel, the current CD is believed to contain details of more than 1000 Germans with personal fortunes in the double and triple digit million area – around 10% of which were examined before the CD purchase was completed.
The politics of the situation is complicated. Germany and Switzerland have an agreement due to come into force next year, providing it gets German parliamentary approval. This will allow Germany to levy taxes on German assets in Swiss banks. However, parliamentary approval will not happen without the approval of the Social Democrats and Greens – which they say will not happen. North Rhine-Westphalia is currently run by a coalition of the Social Democrats and Greens, leading Norbert Walter-Borjans, finance minister of the North Rhine-Westphalia, to comment, “It is therefore only logical that we don’t need to act as if the agreement already applied.”
It is also unclear from where the CD originates. It could be hacking from the outside, or staff whistleblowing from the inside. However, Coutts’ statement that they have no evidence of a breach tends to support the latter: a Bradley Manning style dump onto a CD that was then just walked out through the front door.
Either way, Switzerland will not be amused. Earlier this year it issued arrest warrants for three North Rhine-Westphalia inhabitants it believes involved in the first CD incident. Spiegel Online reported that Switzerland’s Attorney General Michael Lauber, the country's top criminal prosecutor, “suspects that the officials from North Rhine-Westphalia issued concrete ‘instructions to spy on the Credit Suisse bank’.”