A court in Switzerland has stopped bank UBS handing details of its Dutch clients to the Dutch tax authorities, the Financieele Dagblad says on Tuesday.

The case was brought by a Dutch UBS client, the paper says.

Last November, the paper reported that the Swiss tax office had agreed to a request from the Netherlands to hand over information about Dutch nationals with accounts at the biggest banking group in Switzerland.

The request targets Dutch nationals who have had more than €1,500 on their accounts over the past two years and did not reply to a letter from the Swiss authorities about potential illicit savings.

In December, information about 100 Dutch customers was handed over to the tax office but at least one went on to challenge the agreement in court.

The Swiss court has now ruled the agreement is too general in scope because it does not name specific account holders.  The five year old tax deal between the Netherlands and Switzerland, the court said, is not enough grounds for such a broad request.

An appeal against this ruling is now an option, the FD says.