Swiss agree to give bank data to US

Switzerland's politicians have voted to hand over the account details of 4450 Americans suspected of using the country's banking secrecy laws to evade US taxes.

The knife-edge vote in the Swiss parliament ratifies a deal signed by the Swiss and US governments last year, and ends a two-year legal battle that had threatened the American operations of the Swiss banking giant UBS.

The US tax authorities came after UBS when a whistleblower claimed its financial advisers were aiding massive tax evasion by some of its American clients.

The bank has already paid US$780 million ($1.1 billion) and handed over details of hundreds of disputed client accounts in return for a deferred prosecution agreement.

The deal negotiated between the Swiss and US governments covered thousands more suspicious accounts, details of which were disclosed by UBS to regulators in Berne but not to the US authorities.

Without the deal, the US tax authorities were threatening to launch a further legal case against UBS in an attempt to win even wider disclosure - something that would have clouded UBS's future in the US and potentially caused a rupture between the US and Swiss governments.

Politicians in the lower house of the Swiss parliament voted against ratifying the agreement earlier this month.

- INDEPENDENT