Switzerland reports around 4 million accounts to 113 states in 2026: what the exchange means for your Swiss account

In 2026 Switzerland exchanged information on financial accounts with 113 states. The Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA) announced this on 15 October 2026 in a press release. The FTA sent data on around 4 million accounts to partner states and received data on around 4 million accounts from them. Whoever holds an account in Switzerland and is tax-resident in the UK or the Nordics is very probably in this dataset. And whoever lives in Switzerland and holds an account abroad is too, only in the other direction. The figures show how routinely the automatic exchange of information now runs, and they also show where it still has gaps.

The figures for 2026

The FTA's press release is short, but it contains more than the headline reveals:

• 113 partner states in total. Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine have joined the 110 states of previous years.
• With 86 states, the exchange ran in both directions.
• 27 states delivered data to Switzerland but received none. For 14 of them, because they do not yet meet the international requirements for confidentiality and data security. The remaining 13 voluntarily chose not to receive data.
• No data was exchanged with Russia this year either.
• Around 9,000 reporting financial institutions are registered with the FTA: banks, trusts, insurers and others.
• How much wealth sits in the reported accounts, the FTA says it cannot quantify.

The legal basis has applied in Switzerland since 1 January 2017. For readers in the UK and the Nordics, the route matters too. For the United Kingdom, according to the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF), the exchange has run under the multilateral agreements since 1 January 2021. Sweden, Denmark and Finland are covered by Switzerland's agreement with the EU. With Norway, Switzerland agreed by an exchange of letters to apply the exchange to tax periods from 1 January 2017. The data has flowed every year since.

What is reported about your account

The FTA lists the contents itself. Identification, account and financial information is exchanged, including:

• Name, address and state of residence of the account holder
• the tax identification number
• details of the reporting financial institution
• the account balance
• investment income, such as interest and dividends

Under the standard, the balance or value of the account at the end of the calendar year concerned is reported, together with the income. Individual transfers, card payments or your correspondence with the bank are not part of it. What the standard covers and what it does not is explained in detail in CRS explained: what banks report about your foreign account.

One point is often misunderstood. The exchange attaches to tax residence, not to nationality. A Briton who lives in Switzerland is not reported to the UK by his Zurich bank. A Briton who lives in Manchester and has an account in Basel is.

How the data reaches your tax authority

The process follows the same rhythm everywhere, with slightly different deadlines.

Switzerland. Under Article 15(1) of the AEOI Act, Swiss financial institutions report their data to the FTA within six months of the end of the calendar year. According to the FTA's overview, the FTA and its partner authorities exchange the information within nine months of the end of the calendar year it relates to. Recipients may use the data exclusively for tax purposes. The accounts of 2025 therefore arrived at the partner states in autumn 2026.

United Kingdom. UK financial institutions report the accounts of clients resident abroad to HMRC by 31 May of the following year. In the other direction, the data arriving from Switzerland and other states about people resident in the UK goes to HMRC. In the end, the information lands where your Self Assessment return is checked.

The Nordics. Swiss data on account holders resident in Sweden, Denmark, Finland or Norway reaches the tax authorities there through the same exchange: Skatteverket, Skattestyrelsen, the Finnish Tax Administration and Skatteetaten.

In Switzerland itself, the data received serves the cantonal tax authorities. In the FTA's words, they can use it to check whether taxpayers have correctly declared their accounts abroad in their tax returns. Whoever lives in Zug or Lucerne and holds an account in the UK, in Sweden or in Singapore should assume the cantonal tax office knows the year-end balance.

New partners: Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine

The three new partners come as no surprise if you read the SIF's country overview. There, under 19 November 2024: Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, each reciprocal, entry into force 1 January 2025. The SIF also explains what that means in practice. From entry into force, Swiss financial institutions collect account information on people tax-resident in these states. It is exchanged for the first time in the autumn of the following year. The exchange of autumn 2026 therefore concerns the year 2025.

That is relevant for one particular group of readers. Whoever has moved away from the UK or the Nordics, shifted their tax residence to Georgia and kept a Swiss account has been reported to Georgia with that account since 2025. That is no cause for concern if the residence is genuine and the tax position in the new country is properly settled. But it is a reason to keep your self-certification at the bank up to date. Whoever is considering Georgia as a banking location finds the assessment in Georgia banking 2026; that is a different question from reporting by a Swiss bank.

The overview shows something else too. Among the latest changes are moves in both directions: Curaçao has been reciprocal again since 8 October 2026, Romania since 21 September 2026, Trinidad and Tobago since 25 August 2026. Thailand has been a reciprocal partner since 1 January 2024. The list is alive, and it is getting longer rather than shorter.

What is changing in the standard itself

The 2026 exchange still ran under the previous standard. But that standard has already been revised.

The OECD has extended the Common Reporting Standard, and Switzerland has adapted its law. On 26 November 2025 the Federal Council adopted the amendment to the AEOI Ordinance. Under it, associations and foundations and their accounts will in future fall directly under the reporting standard; some can be exempted under set conditions. For crypto assets there is a new reporting framework, which according to the same release Switzerland will apply with partner states from 2027 at the earliest.

In relations with the EU, which matters for readers in Sweden, Denmark and Finland, a separate agreement applies. Switzerland and the EU signed an amending protocol on 20 October 2025 that adapts this agreement to the revised OECD standard. The Federal Council presented the dispatch to parliament on 24 June 2026. According to that release, the provisions on the revised standard have been applied provisionally since 1 January 2026. What Swiss banks record about their EU clients in 2026 therefore already follows the new standard and will be exchanged in autumn 2027.

On the UK side, the amended CRS applies from 1 January 2026 as well: according to HMRC, the first reporting year under the revised rules is the calendar year 2026, with reports due by 31 May 2027.

What this means for you

Holding an account in Switzerland is legal, for readers in the UK, in the Nordics and of course in Switzerland itself. The income on it is taxable in your country of residence. The automatic exchange of information changes nothing about that; it only ensures that your tax authority learns of it even without your involvement. A few clear points follow.

Declare what is reported. Investment income from the Swiss account belongs in the tax return of your country of residence, in the UK in the foreign section of your Self Assessment return. What you must declare beyond that is set out in Declaring your offshore account.

Keep your self-certification up to date. The bank reports to the state you gave it as your tax residence. Whoever moves must tell the bank. An outdated self-certification leads to reporting to the wrong state, and a deliberately false self-certification is a false declaration to the bank.

The year-end balance is no secret. The balance at the end of the year is reported, together with the income for the whole year. Whoever hopes to hide something with a transfer just before New Year's Eve overlooks that the income is in the dataset anyway.

Put old cases in order now. Whoever has not declared income from a Swiss account in past years should assume the data has been on file for years. The right contact is a tax adviser in your country of residence, before the tax authority asks. In the UK, HMRC's Worldwide Disclosure Facility is the route for disclosing tax owed on offshore income.

Reporting and access are two different questions

Many readers link the data exchange with the question of whether they can still open a Swiss account at all. These are two separate topics. The exchange governs who learns what. Whether a Swiss bank may still take on a client resident in Sweden, Denmark or Finland from 2027 is governed by the European banking directive CRD VI, with its cut-off date of 11 January 2027. For readers resident in the UK, this second question does not arise; the EU rule does not reach them. What still works for Nordic readers, and which routes remain open afterwards, is set out in Swiss account without residence: what still works from 2027.

The Swiss data exchange does not make an account there any less sensible. The franc, the stability of the banking system and the separation from the legal system of your country of residence remain what they were. What no longer exists is an account your tax authority does not know about, and that has been true since 2017. Whoever wants to spread their wealth across several countries therefore plans with full transparency towards their own tax authority and chooses the bank by stability, currency and access.

Which combination of bank and country suits your situation, and how to reflect it cleanly in your tax return, is what we clarify in the free consultation. You receive a written assessment within 48 hours.