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What does bank secrecy cover?
Swiss law does not have a list of cases covered by bank secrecy; it is thus determined by jurisprudence. This works in your favor. In fact:

• Bank secrecy protects all contacts with a view to opening an account,even if the account is never actually opened. The justice system always assumes that you want confidential banking relations.
   
• You are the beneficiary of bank secrecy. You are the sole person who can authorize the bank to divulge information covered by the secrecy. Under no uncertain circumstances can the banker decide to lift the bank secrecy.
   
• You are the only person who can increase the scope of confidence. Only by your formal order can the bank pass on information to other bodies also covered by bank secrecy: you alone can use your bank as a reference for a loan or to obtain a credit card.
  
• Bank secrecy covers not only what you have revealed to the banker, but also anything that the banker has learned or suspects of you.
  
• Bank secrecy must always be respected, even if the banker does not understand why you wish to keep things confidential.
   
• Regardless of the content of the information to be kept secret. Secrecy must be kept, whether it consists of the existence of an account, its balance, the name of the holder of a numbered account, support payments to a third party, and so on.
   
• There is no time limit on bank secrecy. If you decide to close your account, the bank secrecy remains in effect. Similarly, if the banker leaves the bank or retires, he or she is bound by duty of confidence until death.
  
• Bank secrecy covers exclusively your business relations with the bank. Information of public knowledge that your banker could have learned as a friend or relative or through a third person without any connection to your business is not covered by bank secrecy.

Other pages of interest:

The limits to Swiss bank secrecy The consequences of Swiss bank secrecy violation Why Swiss bank secrecy?