Embattled UBS AG has warned that Switzerland’s financial industry is at risk unless lawmakers approve a tax treaty with the US, and that other Swiss banks may be next to face pressure from US regulators.
In a letter to parliamentarians, the banking company said the US Internal Revenue Service has collected information on the cross-border activities of about 20 Swiss banks and may press for a crackdown on US tax evaders at these institutions as well.
UBS urged parliament to approve an August treaty signed by the US Treasury Department and Switzerland’s executive Federal Council on improving cooperation in tax evasion matters.
“The risks are very considerable for the Swiss financial center and the economy as a whole if parliament were to withhold its approval,” UBS said in the letter first reported on Friday by Zurich daily Tages-Anzeiger.
The bank confirmed its authenticity.
The Swiss government is scrambling to salvage the treaty after a Swiss court ruled in January that parts of it were illegal. It has asked parliament to sign off on the deal, which would temper Switzerland’s strict banking secrecy law to meet Washington’s demands for greater access to files on suspected US tax cheats.
“Apart from UBS, many other Swiss banks were involved in cross-border business with American clients,” the Zurich-based bank said, referring to offshore accounts for wealthy US customers.
“The IRS has obtained information on about 20 Swiss banks” as part of a recent amnesty program, UBS said.
“It is quite possible that the IRS wants to obtain information on other customers of these banks. Refusal by Switzerland to meet its obligations under international law could send a signal that would escalate these cases,” the banking company said.
A spokesman for UBS declined to comment on which banks might be involved.
UBS also said Switzerland risked ending up on a blacklist of uncooperative tax havens if lawmakers refused to bless the deal, which was reached after months of tense negotiations between Washington and Bern.
Swiss companies doing business in the US could then be subject to additional scrutiny by the IRS, it said.
Marlies Baenziger, a lawmaker for the center-left Green Party and member of the parliamentary finance committee, said the letter showed UBS was trying to intimidate parties into approving the treaty.
The nationalist Swiss People’s Party, the country’s largest, announced earlier this week it would oppose the deal in parliament.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary