Credit Suisse scandal threatens Swiss efforts to clean up reputation

An anonymous tip to Dutch authorities on thousands of suspicious accounts at Credit Suisse could hardly have come at a worse time for Switzerland and its banks.

The information that triggered raids in five countries raises new doubts about the effectiveness of Switzerland's efforts to shed its decades-old reputation as one of the world's major tax havens.

"It's a wake-up call not only for the banking community but also for authorities," said Mark Pieth, an anti-corruption expert and criminal law professor at the University of Basel.

"Instead of really just being angry at others they should ask, have we really been zealous enough?"

Switzerland is among the countries that signed up to a global data-sharing programme led by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, known as the Automatic Exchange of Information, which was designed to root out tax dodgers.