Basel, 7 March 2007 - Banks as a whole enjoy a very good image in Switzerland. 59% of those polled take a positive view of their financial institutions and 67% believe the banking industry to be the economically most important of Switzerland’s economic sectors. For the first time these positive attitudes have also been recorded in French-speaking Switzerland, an area formerly quite critical of the financial sector. Furthermore, approximately four out of five respondents judged the competitiveness of the Swiss financial centre to be higher than - or at least equal to - that of foreign competitors. And once again a clear majority (79%) of Swiss support bank-client confidentiality. These are some of the findings of this year’s opinion poll carried out for the Swiss Bankers Association by M.I.S.-Trend of Lausanne.

The banking sector enjoys a very good image in Switzerland, with 59% of respondents describing their attitude towards banks in Switzerland as “very positive“ or “positive“. This positive value has now stabilised at the high level recorded in last year’s poll. In a new departure, this year’s positive findings have also been recorded throughout French-speaking Switzerland. On virtually all issues this year’s opinion poll found the picture in French-speaking Switzerland to be similar to that found in the country’s two other language regions, namely German- and Italian-speaking Switzerland. And once again a majority (67%) believe the banking sector to be the economically most important of Switzerland’s economic sectors (2006: 64%). This finding was echoed when respondents were asked about the significance of banks as employers: 83% (2006: 81%) believe jobs in the banking sector are important for the Swiss labour market. A new subject in this year’s poll concerned the commitment of banks to supporting cultural, social and sporting events and 63% of those polled believe that banks make a valuable contribution in these areas.

The Swiss financial centre also scored well on the international front. 89% (2006: 84%) believe that the Swiss financial centre enjoys a good professional reputation abroad. For the first time this year’s poll raised the subject of the international competitiveness of Swiss banks. 78% judged Swiss banks as being at least equal to their foreign counterparts in terms of competitiveness, with 54% saying they were actually more competitive. About a quarter of respondents were of the opinion that Swiss banks would become even more competitive in the future. And, once again, an overwhelming majority (79%) of respondents support Swiss bank-client confidentiality. In an international context, 73% (2006: 76%) said they assumed that international pressure on bank-client confidentiality was likely to increase in the future. However, the majority (76%) expressed the clear view that there was no question of Switzerland caving in to international pressure and giving up the principle of financial privacy (2006: 72%).

Note to journalists:
For several years now the Swiss Bankers Association has commissioned representative polls of Swiss citizens to find out about their relationship with the Swiss banking sector and their views on the overall significance of banks for the Swiss economy. The poll used a sample of 1,005 Swiss citizens and the margin of error is +/- 3.1%. The opinion poll was carried out in January 2007 by the independent research company M.I.S.-Trend of Lausanne.

Opinion Poll 2007 (in PDF German and PDF French only)

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