Corruption in Switzerland describes the prevention and occurrence of

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

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 The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

'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 ...

's 2024

Corruption Perceptions Index The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is an index that scores and ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as assessed by experts and business executives. The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entr ...

, Switzerland scored 81 on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"). This is Switzerland's lowest score since the current scoring system was implemented in 2012. When ranked by score, Switzerland ranked 5th among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. For comparison with regional scores, the highest score among Western European and

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

countries was 90, the average score was 64 and the lowest score was 41. For comparison with worldwide scores, the best score was 90 (ranked 1), the average score was 43, and the worst score was 8 (ranked 180). The Transparency International Global Barometer 2013 showed that

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

were considered the most corrupt institution in Switzerland. On a scale of 1 (not at all corrupt) to 5 (extremely corrupt), the Swiss rated their political parties at 3.3. A Transparency International Switzerland report published in February 2024 also found that every second Swiss company that exports goods is confronted with demands for bribes or gifts. According to the study, 63% of companies comply with these demands. 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 the act of granting an In-group favoritism, advantage, privilege, or position to Kinship, relatives in an occupation or field. These fields can include business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, religion or health care. In ...

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. The Helsinki Commission of the US Congress has strongly criticized the functioning of the Swiss judiciary and courts in 2023; namely by saying they are "corrupt".

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) or corporate social impact is a form of international private business industry self-regulation, self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropy, philanthropic, activist, or chari ...

that are generally in line with

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...

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. According to the

: Some recent examples include

Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical company, pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland. Novartis is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and was the eighth largest by re ...

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

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

in 2020 or Zurich-based bank

Julius Baer Julius Baer (; né Isaac Baer; born 2 January 1857 – 9 March 1922) was a German-born Swiss banker, businessman and philanthropist. Baer was the founder and namesake of Julius Baer Group, and the patriarch of the Baer family. Early life and ...

admitting to laundering over $36 million in bribes in a

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

case in 2021. In 2021,

Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG (, ) was a global Investment banking, investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. According to UBS, eventually Credit Suisse was to be fully integrated into UBS. While the integration ...

was prosecuted in a

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

tuna bonds corruption scandal in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. In 2022,

Glencore Glencore plc is an Anglo-Swiss Multinational corporation, multinational commodity trading and mining company with headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, Baar, Switzerland. Glencore's oil and gas headquarters are in London, London, England as well a ...

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

Banking

In 2018, the advocacy group

Tax Justice Network The Tax Justice Network (TJN) is a British advocacy group consisting of a coalition of researchers and activists with a shared concern about tax avoidance, tax competition, and tax havens. Activity Research The TJN has reported on the OECD ...

ranked Switzerland's banking sector as the "most corrupt" in the world due to a large offshore banking industry and very strict secrecy laws. These laws allow

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

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. 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 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) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

. 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.

Notes

References

External links

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

Crime in Switzerland by type Politics of Switzerland

Law of Switzerland Economy of Switzerland Government of Switzerland Society of Switzerland