Switzerland is one of the world's major financial centres and the Swiss banking network is one of the most highly developed in the world. An important aspect of the Swiss banking system is its tradition of banking secrecy, which is protected by Law.

Switzerland is a low-tax jurisdcition having a series of specialized corporate forms which can be used by non-resident individuals and international companies to reduce their tax bill to a significant extent.

The most interesting corporate form is the Swiss stock corporation ("Soci?t? Anonyme" or "Aktiengesellschaft"), which can avail itself of the numerous double taxation treaties signed by Switzerland, representing thus an interesting vehicle in the planning of international trading or assets protection structures.