Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Thursday brought a multi-billion dollar civil lawsuit against the Swiss banking giant UBS for allegedly pushing everyday investors into buying troubled auction-rate securities.

It is interesting to observe that UBS seems to have removed its videoclip on CSR from its website.

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The Times and other media have reported that a federal court took the unprecedented step of demanding that the Swiss bank hand over the names of as many as 20,000 of its customers

The US law requires a US taxpayer to report all financial accounts in a foreign country if the total value of the accounts exceeds $10,000. Failure to report a foreign account can lead to a penalty of up to 50 per cent of the amount in the account at the time of the violation.This is the first time that the US courts have authorised such a request over a foreign bank and the move could put it on a collision course with the authorities in Switzerland, where it is illegal for banks to disclose confidential information without client approval because of the banking secrecy.

In a statement, the bank said: “UBS takes this matter very seriously and is working diligently with both Swiss and US government authorities, consistent with Swiss law and the legal frameworks for intergovernmental cooperation and assistance.”

Swissinfo has repôrted that a Miami judge has authorised United States officials to seek information from Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, on taxpayers suspected of evading income taxes.

Some observers see the decision as putting further pressure on Switzerland's traditional banking secrecy laws

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