Financial Transparency Coalition

At a meeting in Berlin on Tuesday, the OECD finance ministers agreed to step up the fight against tax evasion, focusing on countries such as Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.

The chairman designate of Switzerland’s powerful bankers’ association on Monday warned private bankers to maintain the highest ethical standards amid intensifying international pressure for tax transparency.

The Justice Department may drop a closely watched legal case aimed at forcing the Swiss bank UBS to divulge the names of 52,000 wealthy American clients suspected of offshore tax evasion, a United States official briefed on the matter said Monday. The move, which would halt an unusually aggressive effort to force Switzerland to lift its veil of banking secrecy, could happen by mid-July.

The Swiss government has agreed to loosen its banking secrecy laws and share data on tax evasion cases that India may be pursuing, as part of a renegotiation of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) that the two countries signed in 1995.