Corruption in Switzerland describes the prevention and occurrence of

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Extent

Government

has a legal framework to combat corruption and several authorities are in charge of curbing the levels of it, particularly when it comes to corruption within Swiss financial institutions. Several sources suggest that the country's fight against corruption has been effective. However, efforts to combat corruption, especially with respect to political party financing have been described as unsatisfactory. The Council of Europe's Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) noted in its 2017 evaluation the specific features of Switzerland's institutions which inspire public confidence in those institutions. The GRECO report also identified three problem areas: potential conflicts of interest in politicians, a potential lack of objectivity in federal judges, and a lack of transparency in the internal operations of the Office of the Attorney General. Finally, GRECO recommended that formal codes of conduct be adopted in these three areas. On

Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil ...

's 2021

Corruption Perceptions Index The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is an index which ranks countries "by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entru ...

, Switzerland scored 84 on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("highly clean"). When ranked by score, Switzerland ranked number 7 among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked number 1 is perceived to have the most honest public sector. In a 2020 report Transparency International noted that political funding, whistleblower protections and combating money laundering were all issues in Switzerland. The Transparency International Global Barometer 2013 shows that 58% of the surveyed households believe that corruption has not changed over the past two years, and 28% believe that it has actually increased. The same survey also shows that

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or po ...

are considered the most corrupt institution in Switzerland. Cases of excessive force, lengthy detention and abuse against migrants or asylum seekers have been reported. In some cases police officers have been given suspended sentences or suspended fines for using excessive force while arresting individuals.

Nepotism Nepotism is an advantage, privilege, or position that is granted to relatives and friends in an occupation or field. These fields may include but are not limited to, business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, fitness, religion, an ...

is considered an issue when dealing with corruption since many people know each other given the close proximity and social, economic and military structures in Switzerland.

Business

Regarding business and corruption, companies do not consider corruption a problem for doing business in Switzerland, and Swiss companies are active in

Corporate Social Responsibility Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of international private business self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in or supporting volunteering or ethicall ...

that are generally in line with

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...

Guidelines for multinational enterprises. But the Swiss system has also enabled some types of organisation to operate with little or no transparency or oversight such as those linked to

commodities trade A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products, such as cocoa, fruit and sugar. Hard commodities are mined, such as gold and oil. Futures contracts are the oldest way of investing ...

. According to the

: Some recent examples include

Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss-American multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (global research).name="novartis.com">https://www.novartis.com/research-development/research-lo ...

paying $729 million to settle bribery cases in the United States and

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

in 2020 or Zurich-based bank Julius Baer admitting to laundering over $36 million in bribes in a

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was foun ...

case in 2021.

Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world and is one of the nine global " ...

was prosecuted in a

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

“tuna bonds” corruption scandal in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. In 2022,

Glencore Glencore plc is a Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company with headquarters in Baar, Switzerland. Glencore's oil and gas head office is in London and its registered office is in Saint Helier, Jersey. The current company was ...

paid up to $1.5 billion in penalties to resolve corruption claims with US, UK and Brazilian authorities.

Banking

In 2018, the

Tax Justice Network The Tax Justice Network (or TJN) is an advocacy group consisting of a coalition of researchers and activists with a shared concern about tax avoidance, tax competition, and tax havens. Empirical results The TJN has reported on the OECD Base er ...

ranked Switzerland's banking sector as the "most corrupt" in the world due to a large

offshore banking An offshore bank is a bank regulated under international banking license (often called offshore license), which usually prohibits the bank from establishing any business activities in the jurisdiction of establishment. Due to less regulation and ...

industry and very strict secrecy laws. These laws allow

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictio ...

and hiding illegally obtained wealth. The Tax Justice Network's ranking attempts to measure how much assistance the country's legal systems provide to money laundering, and to protecting corruptly obtained wealth. However, Berlin-based

ranked Switzerland as the world's 7th least corrupt country in 2021. However, Transparency International is a German

voluntary association A voluntary group or union (also sometimes called a voluntary organization, common-interest association, association, or society) is a group of individuals who enter into an agreement, usually as volunteers, to form a body (or organization) to a ...

with its founders themselves having strong ties to the Swiss banking sector. The enabling industry refers to lawyers, fiduciaries, notaries, and real estate agents who are helping the criminals invest or hide their ill-gotten monies. Their activity is not covered by the Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act for as long as they are only advising clients to place money in a particular financial institution or country.

Sports

Switzerland is at the center of sports corruption because many international sports organizations are headquartered there. For example, international sporting organisations (ISO's) can have the legal status of an international

Non Governmental Organisation A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

. Encouraged by the resulting range of legal and fiscal privileges, some 53 international sports organisations have their head office in Switzerland, with 46 of them in the Canton de Vaud alone. These include

and the

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

References

External links

Switzerland Corruption Profile
from the Business Anti-Corruption Portal {{Europe topic , Corruption in

Crime in Switzerland by type Politics of Switzerland