The president of the Swiss confederation Doris Leuthard has warned foreign governments not to pay for illegally obtained information regarding holders of Swiss savings accounts.

Ms Leuthard made her remarks in response to a report in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine. The paper writes that an informant offered to sell the data of 1,500 account holders to the German tax authorities for 2.5 million euros. The information would reportedly allow the German authorities to collect 200 million euros in evaded taxes. The account holders are all clients of UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank. The issue has led to fierce debate on the legality of such practices.

Switzerland in turn has been embarrassed by yet another incident involving leaked banking secrets. The secret data of thousands of French savers recently found their way to the French tax authorities. The data had been stolen by a former employee of a Swiss branch of the British HSBC bank.

Photo: stolen data on German savers up for sale (FAZ)