NEW DELHI, JUNE 09, 2010: THE USA rampage against tax evaders has suffered a setback with Switzerland’s lower house defeating the bill to allow Swiss headquartered, global finance company, UBS AG, to reveal the names of its American account holders who had set up hidden offshore accounts and probably evaded taxes. A final vote on the bill is expected by June 18, 2010.

In August last year, UBS pleaded guilty and agreed to disclose the names of the Americans who were helped to set up the off shore accounts following which US and Switzerland penned a deal to settle the case.

However, in January this year, the Swiss Federal Administrative Court, ruled that as per domestic laws, tax authorities could only order disclosure of data in cases of “fraud,” a condition that was not met in this case.

Under its agreement with US, the Swiss government has until August to ensure disclosure of data relating to 4450 UBS clients, with suspected tax evasion of more than US $20 billion, failing which the banks business in USA will be seriously threatened.

Switzerland is also under pressure from neighbouring European nations to loosen its bank secrecy laws.