Financial Transparency Coalition

Switzerland and the United States were engaged on Friday in the final stages of efforts to reach an agreement to settle a legal case that sought to force the Swiss banking giant UBS to disclose the names of wealthy American clients suspected of tax evasion.

ZURICH (Reuters) - The United States and Switzerland are expected to reach a final settlement on Friday to end a tax row against giant UBS, but details of the deal won't be made public the same day, sources familiar with the situation said.

There is much speculation about the nature of the deal the US has come to with Switzerland over the UBS case and the US demand for 52,000 names concerning accounts they think might have resulted in US tax abuse. No one knows what the agreement is, but there’s lots of noise. In that there’s considerable spin going on. I can say one thing for sure: the US won’t get what it asked for and Switzerland will claim it’s banking secrecy will survive. The latter claim seems unlikely to be true. First, it’s thought that maybe 5,000 names will be given....

ZURICH (Reuters) - Shares in UBS soared on Monday after reports said the Swiss bank would not pay a fine and would pass on fewer client names than expected in a settlement of U.S. tax litigation to be finalized later this week.