UBS data transfer "violated secrecy laws", Court finds
A Swiss court ruled, on 8 January 2010, that Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) had violated Swiss laws by authorising the transfer of data of 300 clients of UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, to US tax authorities. Three US clients of UBS brought the case against FINMA.
Last February, in a bid to settle charges of tax fraud in the US, UBS agreed to pay US authorities US$780 million and hand over details of about 300 clients. Banks in Switzerland are not allowed to provide any data on their clients to authorities, unless there is clear evidence of fraud or money laundering. Only the Swiss government and the parliament are authorised to allow banking secrecy rules to be lifted by evoking the law of "constitutional necessity".
The Federal Administrative Tribunal ruled that: "the decision of the FINMA on 18 February 2009 to order the transfer of banking data of UBS clients to authorities of the United States of America violates the law." It further noted: "even if FINMA is in a critical situation due to threats of a penal proceeding against UBS from the US authorities, it is not authorised to allow the transmission of banking data concerning clients outside of the ordinary international administrative assistance procedure."
FINMA justified its decision saying that "only this solution could prevent an imminent lawsuit by the US penal authorities against the bank that threatened the existence" of UBS. It said it would analyse the ruling and decide if it would file an appeal at the Supreme Court.
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