UBS Issues Code of Conduct on Tax and Financial Crime

On January 12, 2010, UBS published a ten-page Code of Business Conduct and Ethics that prohibits its employees from assisting clients in committing tax and financial crimes. The UBS code provisions are expected to help it regain some of its luster in the aftermath of its entry into a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department in February 2009 on charges of conspiring to defraud the United States by impeding the U.S. and then signing an agreement in August 2009 to settle an IRS John Doe enforcement action. The major importance of the new Code may be its potential utility for other banks and financial institutions who may want to emulate its provisions...more...