Swiss court rules UBS broke law by releasing customer data
08 Jan 2010
A Swiss court today ruled that Switzerland's financial markets regulator Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, Finma, exceeded its authority by ordering the bank to deliver information on 255 of the bank's clients to to the US, to avoid criminal prosecution.
UBS settled by paying US authorities $780 million and handing over details of its US clients.
The five judges of the Federal Administrative Court in Bern rejected Finma's argument that the action was necessary to prevent insolvency of UBS, the country's slargest bank, and ensure the stability of the Swiss financial system.
The court said that Finma was not authorised to allow the transmission of banking data concerning clients outside of the ordinary international administrative assistance procedure.
It ordered UBS to cover its clients' legal expenses of 5,000 Swiss francs ($4,835) and pay total compensation to three appellants of 17,000 francs.
UBS can appeal the ruling in Switzerland's Supreme Court.
