Mark Branson, UBS’ chief financial officer of global wealth management, made the vow Thursday as a Senate panel was told that the country had lost US$100 billion in revenue to tax cheats hiding money with the help of foreign banks.

“We have decided to exit entirely the business in question,” Branson told the panel of senators.

The hearing centered on a 115-page report into alleged abuses by UBS in Switzerland and the smaller LGT Bank in Liechtenstein.

“The evidence we have been able to obtain breaks through some of the wall of secrecy to show that these two banks have employed banking practices that facilitate, and have resulted in, tax evasion by U.S. clients,” said Senator Carl Levin, who led the six month investigation.

The offshore tax evasion problem is of “staggering proportions,” said Senator Norm Coleman.

“These tax havens hold an estimated US$1.5 trillion in American assets, resulting in lost taxes of roughly US$100 billion,” he said.

The OECD group of mostly industrialized economies estimates that between US$5 trillion to US$7 trillion are held in tax havens or banking secrecy jurisdictions globally.

In response to the Senate probe, UBS, the world’s largest manager of private wealth, said 19,000 of the 20,000 U.S. client accounts in Switzerland were “undeclared” in the range of nearly US$18 billion.

U.S. authorities have initiated enforcement action against 100 U.S. taxpayers in connection with accounts in the secretive European principality of Liechtenstein after a former LGT employee provided tax authorities around the world with data on about 1,400 people with bank accounts.

The ex-employee, who has gone into hiding, gave the U.S. probe panel 12,000 pages of documents related to U.S. clients.

Former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfield had already pleaded guilty to conspiring to help U.S. clients evade millions of dollars in taxes by hiding assets in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Another UBS official was detained as a “material witness.”

The enforcement actions appear to represent the first time that the United States has criminally prosecuted a Swiss banker for helping an American taxpayer evade U.S. taxes.

“The details of their tax evasion scheme are sordid enough,” Levin said.

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