UBS, the world’s biggest wealth manager, informed shareholders at a special meeting in Lucerne on Thursday that it was preparing to bow to US pressure and release the names of an unspecified number of US clients who may have committed tax fraud in squirreling away their assets. The tacit admissions that “a limited number” of such cases had been discovered among the roughly 19,000 US citizens who held offshore accounts with the bank’s Geneva, Zurich and Lugano offices suggested that a settlement with US authorities in their investigations into alleged tax evasion may be on the horizon. Peter Kurer, UBS’s chairman, gave no details and officials stressed the decision to give names to US authorities remained a governmental matter. The 2,400 or so shareholders at the EGM, called to approve a SFr6bn Swiss government bail-out, also heard that former UBS executives have paid back or forfeited bonuses amounting to almost SFr70m ($58m), after scathing domestic criticism of the Swiss executives.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Friday, November 28th, 2008 at 5:48 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Edit this entry.