The Swiss government has agreed to modify their bank secrecy rules to better cooperate with international governments in their search for financial fraud, tax evasion and other monetary mishaps.

Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss Financial Minister and ceremonial President, said that Switzerland will adjust their rules to use the standards established by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; though, only on a case-by-case basis.

“We want assistance to be restricted to individual cases to prevent fishing expeditions,” said Merz.

This breaks the Swiss culture and history of withholding clients’ information under all circumstances — it has long been Swiss law for banks to be disallowed from disclosing any information that was not in contrast with another Swiss law. In Switzerland, tax evasion is a minor offense — not one that allows the information to be disclosed.

The new rules will allow the Swiss government to mandate disclosure for breaking international laws and laws from other countries — at some level of authoritative discretion. Many analysts believe this change was made due to the upcoming G20 meeting, where the country fears it may be written-off as a tax haven.

Andorra, Jersey and Bermuda have also announced the likelihood of adopting OECD rules. Switzerland’s tiny neighbor, Liechtenstein agreed to meet the rules yesterday, a country which has been listed by the OECD as an “uncooperative tax haven,” one which was expected to become target at this G20 meeting for harboring tax criminals from around the world.

Andorra, a country landlocked between France and Spain of 65,000 people, also made an announcement that Chief Minister, Albert Pintat signed a commitment to reform it’s banking and tax structure by November 15th.

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