Bern has summoned the Italian ambassador and demanded an explanation for Tuesday's raids by police and tax inspectors on dozens of Swiss banks in Italy.

The Italian tax agency said it carried out checks at 76 branches of financial institutions, most of them Swiss, as part of Rome's crackdown on tax evasion. A spokesperson for the Swiss Banking Association said he found it strange that only Swiss banks were raided.
 

Relations between Italy and Switzerland deteriorated after Rome passed an amnesty deal in an attempt to recover millions of euros of tax revenue hidden in Swiss banks. Many have taken advantage of the amnesty and withdrawn billions of euros from Swiss banks in recent years.