16 January 2012

Who is protecting your confidential information?

In times where huge amounts of information can be downloaded by any bank employee with some basic computer skills it is amazing - not to say frightening - that a Swiss bank can treat client data with so little care and respect as happened at Credit Suisse. Not less than 4812 pages of client information were sent to the Swiss Federal tax authorities when only information about 5 named US citizens was requested. Is it really that hard for highly paid Brady Dougan, the chief executive of the bank, to make sure that clients (the original Latin word means 'someone you are protecting') get more care? The fine old tradition of numbered accounts should be considered as a safeguard - this time not to facilitate tax evasion but to prevent unauthorised use of information.