Questor, It does, in a way, constitute an attack on Switzerland. Twelve countries demanded release of banking information about Swiss depositors in an effort to catch tax evaders. In bygone years, the Swiss just laughed at international demands for account information but this time around, they were caught between a rock and a hard place. The Swiss have opened branch banks all over the world and UBS and Credit Suisse are two of the big ones in the US. The US imposed $780 million in fines on UBS alone and the banks were faced with the prospect of either giving the US government the information they demanded or shutting down their operations within USA borders. UBS paid the fines [$780 million would have broken the back of most other banks in the world] and entered into "tax treaties" with these twelve countries in order to keep their branches open.
This will not affect their war and arms business however. They still have the two criteria everyone looks for in arms deals -- high capitalization and absolute trust. Every country needs a Switzerland if they are going to engage in international arms trades and Switzerland is the only country with the banking stability and the cash to handle this stuff. Their "neutrality" enhances the trust factor. War, next to the illegal drug trade, is the biggest business in the world.
