Dutch, Belgians, Austrians join Germans vs. Swiss secrecy

From Reuters:

"European states lined up behind German Chancellor Angela Merkel to expose tax cheats in a combined assault on the Swiss banking secrecy laws that help protect them.
. . . .
Now, the Dutch, Belgian and Austrian governments have also flagged interest in obtaining a copy of a compact disc with tax-sensitive data that Berlin may soon buy from an informant.
. . .
Bankers fear the latest set of attacks could undermine the country's entire private banking model.

Interesting. And for those concerned about the issue of dealing with "stolen" bank information, the head of Germany's police union is right on the nail, just as we recently argued:

"The police work with criminals on a daily basis — we have paid informers who help us uncover drug trafficking or other crimes," Konrad Freiberg, head of the union, tells TIME. "Particularly with tax fraud, you'd never be able to get at these people otherwise."

Exactly.