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Swiss legislators have signalled their willingness to compromise in a long-running dispute over whether client accounts held by UBS should be transferred to the US authorities, the Associated Press reported.
"We're prepared to talk," Ursula Wyss, a leading figure in the left-wing Social Democratic Party that voted against the US-Swiss treaty last week, was quoted as saying by Swiss weekly SonntagsBlick.
Swiss People's Party lawmaker Bruno Zuppiger called for an end to the "dishonourable spat" between those in favour and those against the deal, telling Zurich-based SonntagsZeitung: "For economic and political reasons we have to bite the bullet" and approve the treaty.
Zuppiger's nationalist party also had voted against the treaty after its demands for amendments weren't met, but their ranks appeared to be splitting ahead of Tuesday's second — and possibly final — ballot in Switzerland's lower house, the reports said.
The legislative wrangles over whether UBS data should be handed over have added to the drawn-out process whereby the Swiss bank was due to pass over accounts to the US authorities. Last August, the Swiss and US governments agreed that UBS would transfer up to 4,450 client account details. However, a top Swiss court subsequently ruled that the agreement violated historic Swiss bank secrecy laws. Since then, Swiss legislators have been attempting to resolve the issue.
The Swiss authorities have already passed over about 500 client account details, as has been previously reported by this publication.
UBS no longer provides offshore banking facilities for US clients; neither do Swiss banks Julius Baer and Wegelin. Last week, Vontobel, another Swiss bank, reportedly set up a unit to manage declared accounts of wealthy US clients.
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