Zurich  - The Swiss banking giant UBS was preventing some 1,000 of its wealth management personnel from leaving the country owing to legal concerns, local media reported Sunday.

Those advisers can longer visit their clients abroad and if a meeting is needed, it would have to take place in Switzerland.

Spokespersons for the bank said travel abroad to meet clients in the cross-border wealth management division had been suspended.

The travel ban has been in effect since Wednesday and would remain so until there was a review of all relevant legal matters connected to banking services to clients outside of Switzerland.

Switzerland's financial regulator, Finma, had advised banks to keep a close watch on potential legal risks and also not to engage in activity which could result in damage to the financial sector's reputation.

Last month, the Financial Times reported that some of Geneva's private bankers were also hesitating to leave the country.

Several Swiss banking officials, speaking when that report was published, denied that they were afraid to leave the Alpine nation's borders, but implied that some banks were making their own decisions on a case by case basis, as per their concerns.

Since then, some bankers have admitted in the Swiss media they were being more careful than in the past, in some cases travelling incognito.

Switzerland, along with some other European governments, said last month they would change their banking laws and relax secrecy codes. There had been concern those countries, accused of being so-called tax havens, could end up on blacklists.

After announcing their plans to change, those countries were placed on watch lists by some leading economies, pending the implementation of the promised alteration to their banking laws.

Last week, United States authorities began proceedings in Florida against the first UBS client to be charged with tax evasion using his account in Switzerland.

The head of the bank's wealth management unit in the US, Martin Liechti, was arrested last year, also in Florida, for his alleged role in helping clients evade taxes.

UBS admitted in February that some of its employees had acted improperly, essentially acknowledging that they had violated foreign as well Swiss laws.

As part of the settlement of the case, opened last summer, the bank agreed to pay a hefty 780 million dollar fine and hand over the names of some 300 clients to US authorities.

The data transfer, ordered by Finma, was based on the Swiss banking rules, which do offer confidentiality in the event of tax evasion.

US authorities were still seeking information on thousands of additional clients. dpa