Compliancex

Wegelin, Switzerland’s oldest bank, has been forced to sell its non-U.S. business to shield it from the fallout over a row with U.S. authorities, which had threatened to charge it with helping taxpayers hide assets.

The St. Gallen-based bank will transfer most of its clients and employees to Notenstein Privatbank, which itself is being bought by Swiss cooperative bank Raiffeisen for an undisclosed price, the banks said on Friday.

“One can certainly imagine how difficult this step was for us. We are giving up our life’s work,” said Konrad Hummler, one of Wegelin’s eight top managing partners and a leader in Swiss financial circles.

“The monstrously difficult and existence-threatening situation that the dispute with U.S. authorities has put us in forces me and my partner of several years Otto Bruderer … to this extraordinarily painful course of action,” he said.

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Katie Reid, Reuters, January 27, 2012