US authorities to get names of 4,500 account holders of UBS

Swiss banking major UBS will hand over names of around 4,500 secret account holders to US authorities, in a landmark deal that will end a dispute in which the two governments and banking authorities in both the countries, the Sonntag weekly said.

Swiss bank UBS was sued to disclose 52,000 US clients suspected of tax evasion. The deal will help dispel a cloud hanging over the second largest wealth manager in the world.

It will also formally leave Switzerland's cherished banking secrecy intact, although many private bankers feel it has been badly mauled.

The deal would cover those violations of that fall under the terms of the double taxation agreement which obliges Switzerland to provide help if Washington seeks it in a criminal investigation, the magazine said.

Accounts below a certain size would not be reported, but this limit would not be divulged so that account-holders would never be sure if they were vulnerable, it said.

However, account holders threatened with disclosure could seek legal recourse in Swiss courts, it said.