After a drawn-out battle between Swiss bank UBS and the US government over the secret bank accounts of US taxpayers, the two have agreed an out-of-court settlement bringing the battle over banking secrecy to an end. Formal details are still waiting to be heard, following a formal signing of the deal, which is thought to be happening early next week, but lawyers have said this deal will involve UBS surrendering the names of at least 5,000 US offshore clients and potentially paying a fine, the Financial Times reports. In February, the US tax authorities secured the names of 255 offshore US bank account holders, who were believed to have used loopholes to evade any tax. The deal was authorised by the Swiss government, and a fine of $780m (£471m) was imposed on the Swiss bank to settle the criminal case that it had broken US laws and allegedly helped tax evasion. But it did not settle the linked, but separate civil action by the US Internal Revenue Service to reveal the names of 52,000 US clients with offshore accounts in UBS. 'We are pleased to have initialled an agreement with the Swiss government which protects the US government's interests,' said Doug Shulman, the IRS commissioner.