Swiss bank tax deal does not include fine

A deal to settle the US tax case against Swiss bank UBS does not include a monetary fine and is expected to "yield 10,000 account identities", the Wall Street Journal said yesterday.

The deal could help the world's second-largest wealth manager restore its image, which has been battered by the financial crisis and the US dispute, and may open the way for the Swiss government to sell its stake in UBS.

It ends a dispute in which US authorities had sued UBS to disclose details of 52,000 US clients suspected of tax evasion. The spat has strained relations between the United States and Switzerland because it challenged the latter's jealously guarded bank secrecy laws and posed a wider threat to its wealth management industry.

The client accounts disclosed belong to people suspected of committing tax fraud under the terms of a double taxation agreement that obliges Switzerland to provide help if Washington seeks it in a criminal investigation.