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U.S. markets recover from steep losses
ZURICH, Switzerland, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- UBS Ag has become a liability for the Swiss government as the United States pressures it to relax its strict banking secrecy laws, analysts say.
Details of this week's settlement between the U.S. Internal Revenue Service seeking to track down assets of tax evaders and the huge and privacy-oriented Swiss bank have been slow to leak out. However, no matter what they are, the bank has become a political drag on Swiss officials, the Swiss Broadcasting Corp. reported.
"As we've seen with the IRS-UBS case, deliberate decisions taken by the bank's board can have serious political repercussions for Switzerland," Boris Zurcher, head of economic policy at the think tank Avenir Suisse, told the SBC. "This is an impossible situation. What is needed now is some realignment of the banks and Swiss policy."
Swiss center-left politicians are reportedly angry at the $46.6 million it took to keep UBS out of court as it faced a trial in U.S. District Court in Florida over demands that it hand over the names of 52,000 wealthy U.S. clients thought to using it to avoid paying taxes.
"...The government does not want to reveal the nature and scope of the arrangements," the Social Democratic Party said in a statement.
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