Swiss Banks: Not So Secret Anymore

The World

After long negotiations, the Swiss bank UBS announced yesterday that it had reached a deal with the Internal Revenue Service. Part of the deal requires the bank to give the I.R.S. the names attached to 4,500 previously secret accounts. Swiss banks have long been valued for their secrecy and discretion; the I.R.S. suspects the bank may be harboring billions of taxable U.S. dollars in accounts owned by Americans.

Now that UBS is bowing to pressure from the U.S., the burning question is: where-oh-where will the fabulously wealthy go to hide their money now? For that and more, we check in with Louise Story, the Wall Street and finance reporter for the New York Times.

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