Swiss Bankers Association Survey 2005 – Continued high level of trust in Swiss banks – Strong support for financial privacy

Basel, 10 March 2005 - This year’s survey reveals that Swiss citizens are very satisfied with their main bank: 79% say they have a “positive” or “very positive” opinion of the financial institution with which they carry out most of their banking business. The results also show that the banking sector in general is held in high regard. Bank-client confidentiality continues to enjoy the strong support of the Swiss people, with an overwhelming majority of 78% saying it should be maintained (2004: 76%). Furthermore, 74% say bank-client confidentiality should not be given up because of international pressure (2004: 72%). The positive results of this year’s survey confirm with a high degree of constancy the good image the banking industry enjoys amongst the Swiss people.

For several years now the Swiss Bankers Association has commissioned the research company MIS Trend of Lausanne to conduct annual surveys 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. This year’s questions were virtually the same as those in previous years and this continuity allows the best possible comparison of results and permits any trends to be reliably identified.

Bank-client confidentiality: strongly supported by the Swiss people
Swiss citizens are clearly in favour of maintaining bank-client confidentiality: 78% say they are in favour of keeping it (2004: 76%). This support is also reflected in views on how Switzerland should behave in an international context: 74% say Switzerland should not give in to international pressure to give up bank-client confidentiality (2004: 72%). This figure attains greater significance considering the survey’s finding that 77% of those questioned believe Switzerland will continue to come under strong international pressure. The conclusion is that the principle of financial privacy is strongly anchored amongst the Swiss and it must not be given up thoughtlessly. The Swiss attach great importance to the protection of privacy in general. An overwhelming majority of 91% (2004: 88%) say that information about a bank client’s financial affairs must be protected vis-à-vis third parties.

High level of trust in Swiss banks
Banks in Switzerland continue to enjoy a very good image. As in last year’s survey, there continues to be a high level of constancy in the views of Swiss citizens about their relationship with their bank. 79% of respondents have a “positive” or “very positive” opinion of their main bank, i.e. the financial institution with which they conduct most of their banking business. This good opinion of one’s main bank has been very stable for some years now. 71% consider their main bank to be secure and reliable; 67% believe it to be trustworthy, and 66% say they feel they are being dealt with by competent bank staff. As in previous years, the survey reveals that the image of the banking sector in general is not quite as good as the image the citizen has of his or her own main bank. Nevertheless, some 53% of respondents say they have a “positive” or “very positive” image of the Swiss banking sector. Indeed, 82% (2004: 80%) are of the opinion that Swiss banks enjoy a good reputation abroad. Once again, 75% of respondents agree that banks are important for the tax contributions they make to the state, local governments and for public services. Not so positively judged was the significance of banks as employers: 76% say they consider banks to be significant as employers, as opposed to 80% in 2004.

Support for SMEs could be better
As in previous surveys, this year’s survey shows that people believe banks should be doing more to help small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 61% say banks do too little for SMEs (2004: 58%). This year’s survey again reveals certain contradictions in the views of respondents. On the one hand, a clear majority (76%) believes that banks should support SMEs that find themselves in financial trouble. On the other hand, 86% say they “definitely” or “largely” agree that banks should keep risks within limits when managing funds deposited by clients. Also noticeable is this year’s finding that more people (47%) than last year say banks should support even large firms that are in financial trouble. Last year only 44% of respondents held this view. The argument that supporting firms in financial difficulties can perpetuate undesirable business structures was also well received. More than half (52%) of respondents totally agree that this is not sensible (2004% 56%)

Note to journalists:
The survey involved 1,017 Swiss citizens and the margin of error is + / - 3.1%. The survey was carried out at the beginning of 2005 by MIS Trend. The results will also be presented at the SBA’s press conference today in Zurich.

Survey 2005 (in PDF German and PDF French only)

Contacts
Thomas Sutter	James Nason
Head of Communications Switzerland	Head of International Communications
Swiss Bankers Association, Basel	Swiss Bankers Association, Basel
Tel. +41 61 295 92 06	Tel. +41 61 295 92 15
Fax +41 61 272 53 82	Fax +41 61 272 53 82
www.swissbanking.org	www.swissbanking.org