Financial Regulatory Forum

By Jason Rhodes

ZURICH, Jan 8 (Reuters) – The Swiss financial regulator broke bank secrecy law last year when it ordered UBS to hand over the files of nearly 300 clients to U.S. authorities, a Swiss court said on Friday.

Regulator FINMA decided on Feb. 18 to allow UBS to hand over some client data to U.S. tax officials, weakening the country’s strict bank secrecy rules in an effort to end a damaging probe into its biggest bank, which prompted clients to pull billions of francs from accounts and leave in droves.

“Even though FINMA was in a difficult position because of the threat of charges against UBS AG, it should not have ordered unilaterally the passing on of data outside of a proper process of a request for official assistance,” Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Court said.

Zuercher Kantonalbank analyst Andreas Venditti said the ruling provided more clarity on FINMA’s role in matters of bank secrecy, although the judgement could still be challenged.

“The damage has already been done for UBS and maybe for the whole Swiss banking industry. But if this ruling means FINMA cannot act alone in future, it certainly helps,” Venditti said.

By Tom Brown

MIAMI, Jan 4 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Monday upheld the prison sentence of a key informant in the tax fraud case against Swiss bank UBS AG and ordered him to start serving his 40-month term as scheduled this Friday.

The ruling by Fort Lauderdale Federal Judge William Zloch ignored both public and legal pleas for leniency by former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld, the main whistleblower in the high-profile case that cracked open Swiss banking secrecy.

Lawyers for Birkenfeld had asked Zloch last month to postpone the Jan. 8 start of his prison term, saying he was ready to cooperate further with the authorities in their pursuit of U.S. tax cheats.

By Kim Dixon

WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) – A new U.S. Internal Revenue Service unit set up to catch rich tax cheats hiding their wealth in complex business entities is rapidly taking shape with the hiring of hundreds of employees.

The IRS high wealth unit, part of a broader effort to combat international tax evasion, is focusing on “the entire web of business entities controlled by a high wealth individual,” IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman told a tax conference this week.

Another IRS official told Reuters “hundreds” of people have already been hired to staff the new unit, including some from within the agency.

LONDON, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Britain’s Labour government will use its upcoming prebudget report to clamp down on tax avoidance, Treasury minister Stephen Timms said on Monday.

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By Kim Dixon
WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Rich Americans who have evaded taxes by hiding foreign holdings have about a week to turn themselves in to an Internal Revenue Service amnesty program or gamble they will not be caught.
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ZURICH, July 23 (Reuters) – Switzerland’s Finance Ministry said on Thursday that on drafting an agreement with Finland it had brought to 12 the number of tax deals initialled in efforts to be removed from an international “grey list” of tax-havens. (more…)