Switzerland is relaxing key bank secrecy laws

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday hailed announcement that Switzerland is relaxing key bank secrecy laws .Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg announced a relaxation of their banking secrecy laws on Friday (13 March) following mounting pressures on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down non-cooperating tax zones.
The news comes only one day after Liechtenstein and Andorra made similar declarations, as a number of financial centres around the world attempt to pre-empt any decision coming out of the G20 leaders summit on 2 April.

As western governments feel the pinch due to expensive stimulus spending projects coupled with reduced tax receipts, the spotlight has been turned on a handful of geographic locations that profit by harbouring capital owned by companies and wealthy individuals from abroad.

The Swiss government said on Friday that it intends to adopt OECD standards on the sharing of banking information between different countries, citing its desire to avoid being placed on the organization's 'black list' of tax havens.
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the changes were "the beginning of the end of tax havens." "Tax evasion, which costs the global economy billions of pounds each year, will become more difficult in future."

Switzerland's largest bank, pay $780 million US clients to resolve criminal fraud charges against it.

UBS agrees on tax fraud settlement in US

The deal is to settle the claim that UBS helped wealthy American clients evade taxes. It could expose some UBS customers to US Internal Revenue Service scrutiny and law enforcement action.

Officials at the US Justice Department said UBS had entered what is known as a deferred prosecution agreement on charges of conspiring to defraud the US by impeding the IRS, the US tax collection agency.

They described it as one of the biggest settlements ever.
UBS shares drop 10 pct amid concern over US probe
Shares in UBS AG are down 10 percent amid concern about the impact of an ongoing tax evasion probe in the U.S.

The bank's share price fell to 11.50 Swiss francs in early trading on the Zurich exchange Friday.

Investors reacted to the news overnight that U.S. authorities want UBS to hand over the names of up to 52,000 American customers suspected of failing to declare all of their taxable assets.

On Wednesday, UBS announced it had reached an agreement to give up some 250 to 300 names to U.S. investigators in an unprecedented breach of Swiss banking privacy.
Swiss ready to pass UBS client
UBS is at the center of a high-profile U.S. investigation that alleges the Swiss bank helped rich Americans avoid paying taxes by hiding money away in undeclared Swiss bank accounts.