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UBS to foot government legal bill if asked

Bank UBS says it will repay the Swiss government for expenses it incurred settling UBS's legal troubles in the United States if the government asks it to.

This content was published on August 13, 2009 - 20:50

The justice ministry has not said how much the legal proceedings and negotiations cost, although the final tab is estimated to be in the tens of millions of francs.

"It would not surprise me if in the end, everything would total about 50 million," Daniel Vischer, a Green Party parliamentarian from Zurich, told the Blick tabloid.

Justice ministry spokesman Folco Galli said the all of the expenses had not been tabulated.

Lawyers told a Miami judge on Wednesday that a deal had been reached to release UBS client data to US tax authorities. US authorities had wanted the bank to hand over the confidential details of around 52,000 clients.

The two sides have not made public the terms of the agreement, although the news buoyed UBS stocks, which closed on Thursday at SFr17.22 ($16.06) on the Swiss Stock Exchange, 5.4 per cent higher than the previous day.

swissinfo.ch and agencies

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