Banking Secrecy (multi-jurisdiction)

Banking-secrecy laws (strongest in places like Switzerland) protect client financial data from disclosure, but they are not absolute: they yield to AML/CTF, sanctions, tax cooperation (CRS/FATCA), court orders, and supervisory requests. For crypto builders the practical question is what client data you store, where, who can access it, and how cross-border disclosure works, a data-residency and minimisation concern as much as a confidentiality one. In practice, such data is confidential by default but disclosable by law.

Key regulations

  • National banking-secrecy laws (e.g., CH Banking Act Art. 47)
  • AML/CTF & sanctions regimes (EU AML, FATF, BSA/FinCEN)
  • Cross-border tax cooperation (CRS / FATCA)

Entities

  • banks
  • custodians
  • brokers
  • CASPs
  • asset managers

Activities

  • onboarding
  • data handling
  • investigations
  • cross-border ops

Developer orientation. Not legal advice.

What to Watch

  • Conflict of laws: secrecy vs AML/sanctions disclosure obligations.
  • Cross-border data transfer and residency constraints.
  • Vendor/analytics tooling leaking client data across jurisdictions.

See also