Swiss banks favor secrecy over U.S. clients

The ongoing saga of UBS vs. the IRS has resulted in what looks like a win for the Internal Revenue Service, even if it doesn't get any more names from UBS (UBS). Swiss banks have frozen out U.S. clients, so Switzerland will no longer be a tax haven for the wealthy who used Swiss secrecy to avoid paying U.S. taxes.

Right now, it's mostly the smaller Swiss banks that have publicly announced they will no longer accept business from U.S. clients. The two other giant Swiss banks -- Julius Baer (JBHGF) and Credit Suisse Group (CS) -- have not publicly stated whether or not they will change their procedures for handling U.S. clients.