(FORTUNE Magazine) – In a rare fit of international cooperation, Switzerland froze the Swiss bank accounts of deposed Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and his family. The assets, it seems, were quietly being withdrawn. Swiss bankers were not sure how much money Marcos had in the country, but one speculated that it was ''substantially less than the $800 million figure bandied about by the Philippine government and closer to the $88 million found in Marcos's papers in Hawaii.'' Switzerland comes under periodic pressure from foreign governments investigating a- nonymous depositors. Except in criminal cases, the Swiss rarely cooperate, though in 1984 they did help the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission crack a complicated insider trading case involving the 1981 purchase of Santa Fe International Corp. by Kuwait Petroleum Corp. A few foreigners think the affair may have signaled a new attitude in Bern. Says a U.S. government official: ''The Swiss don't want to be viewed only as a country where people can put their dirty money.'' But despots need not be alarmed. The only other time Switzerland froze anybody's assets was at the close of World War II, when it seized Nazi Germany's accounts. Two years ago the Swiss populace roundly defeated a referendum to weaken bank secrecy laws. And the fabled gnomes of Zurich seem disturbed about the Marcos freeze. Says one banker: ''I hope this doesn't set a precedent, or make foreign investors think that Swiss bankers are unreliable.''