Government appoints new top finance diplomat

Stoffel is the first woman to become Switzerland's top finance diplomat. Keystone

Daniela Stoffel has been appointed as new state secretary for international finance in the Swiss government.

The 50-year-old Stoffel will lead the finance ministry unit and help defend Switzerland’s interests in international financial tax and monetary matters.

She replaces Jörg Gasser who announced his resignation last October.

Stoffel has worked both for the foreign and for the finance ministry since 1998. She was named Swiss ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in December but will now not take up this post.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Finance Minister Ueli Maurer said Stoffel had all the prerequisites for the challenges both at national and international level. Maurer himself had encouraged the “excellent” candidate to apply for the role.

Stoffel’s previous postings included the Swiss embassies in Washington and Berlin as well as the general secretariat of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

She is the first woman to take over the State Secretariat for International Finance, a unit set up in 2010 in the wake of an international banking crisis and disputes over tax issues between Switzerland and other countries.