Updated 16:55 Zurich and Bern, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – Le Temps Wednesday afternoon 18 February reports the potentially explosive news, not confirmed officially, that UBS, which has been under investigation by the IRS (Internal Revenue Service: tax authority) in the US, will turn over the names of 250 clients to the American Justice Department. Le Temps credits several sources, which it does not name. It notes that UBS, which has resisted pressure over providing names until now, “in the process, weakens the Swiss financial centre.”
Both the bank and Finma, Switzerland’s bank supervisory authority, refused to comment on Finma’s role in the decision, when asked by the Geneva-based newspaper to do so. But Le Temps, one of Switzerland’s most respected media, insists that according to its sources Finma has given the bank the green light to share 250 of the 19,000 names US authorities are requesting. Finma, says the paper, has done so under an article of the banking laws that allows it to take exceptional “protective measures.”
Normally, the US offices of UBS would not be bound by Swiss banking secrecy laws, but the clients in question are offshore, meaning clients of UBS Switzerland, which is bound by Swiss law to respect clients’ privacy.
Le Temps has interviewed several concerned parties about the news, which has not been confirmed. Among them: Andreas Rüd, the Zurich lawyer for a group of US citizens, clients of UBS, who have gone to the Swiss Federal Administrative Tribunal to insist that Switzerland not give in to pressure to reveal their names.
Related: Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act, US and “UBS clients fight Swiss plan to transfer bank data,” Reuters, 18 November 2008
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News story, GenevaLunch, 18 February 2009.
Filed under: Business
Tags: 1929, Business, Business and finance, economy, IRS, Le Temps, offshore banking, Swiss banking secrecy, Swiss business, Swiss companies, US accounts
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