Switzerland on Wednesday agreed to reveal the names of 4,450 wealthy Americans holding offshore accounts at UBS, its biggest bank, reports the FT. Washington hailed the deal and indicated it would pursue other foreign banks and individual tax “cheats”. The WSJ added that the US could within months begin criminally prosecuting hundreds of people for using foreign bank accounts to evade income taxes. Separately, the Swiss government said it would exit its SFr6bn ($6.46bn) investment in UBS, made last October as part of a rescue package, by selling securities which convert into a stake of more than 9% in UBS to institutional investors by Tuesday.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 5:01 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with ubs. Edit this entry.