GENEVA (AFP) — Switzerland's finance minister on Wednesday defended Swiss banking giant UBS even as lawmakers voiced concerns that a US tax evasion probe into the bank could sully the country's reputation.
The "presumption of innocence" should be applied to the bank, said Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz, stressing that the country would cooperate with the US authorities on the case.
A team has already been sent to the United States to explain Swiss laws to their US counterparts, said Merz.
US authorities have taken steps to oblige UBS to divulge the details of bank accounts held by US citizens in the investigations, an issue that the bank said it took "very seriously".
As complying with such a summons would mean flouting Swiss privacy and banking secrecy laws, the Swiss authorities are also involved in the issue.
Merz had on Tuesday briefed a parliamentary economic commission on the case.
On Wednesday, the commission said it was "worried about the eventual negative consequences of this case for the Swiss financial centre and plan to follow the situation attentively."
The UBS-focused probe comes after US tax authorities opened an investigation of over 100 Americans in late February related to bank accounts held Liechtenstein to avoid tax.
Late Tuesday, it emerged that a US federal judge in Miami, Florida, had issued an order authorising the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to request information from Zurich-based UBS about US taxpayers who may have used Swiss bank accounts to evade income taxes.
When contacted by AFP, UBS said on Wednesday that it had yet to receive the summons from the US tax authorities.
But it stressed that it was taking the matter "very seriously" and "working diligently" with both Swiss and US authorities on the issue.
In a statement, UBS said: "We are aware that the District Court of Southern Florida has granted the IRS permission to issue a civil summons directed to UBS AG. Thus far, no such summons has been issued."
US law requires taxpayers to report all financial accounts in a foreign country if the total value of the accounts tops 10,000 dollars during a calendar year.
Banks often advise wealthy clients on how to legally minimize their tax bills but it is illegal in the United States to actively evade paying income tax on earnings.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
