Eugen Haltiner, president of the Swiss Financial and Market Supervisory Authority (Finma), has announced he will stand down at the end of the year.

The former UBS manager got caught up in a political storm earlier this year when the federal administrative court said Finma had abused its power when it ordered details of 255 UBS account holders suspected of tax evasion in the United States to be sent to Washington.

The following day Haltiner said Finma had made “an appropriate decision”. He reiterated Finma’s position that the move had prevented a legal complaint against UBS and insisted that there was sufficient legal basis. The government had agreed to the transfer of data, he added.

The finance ministry acknowledged Haltiner’s decision in a statement on Wednesday. It said he had “played a substantial role in ensuring that Switzerland weathered the financial crisis well by international standards”.

It added that “the measures to stabilise Switzerland's financial centre, in the development of which he played a leading role, protected the Swiss economy from devastation”.

Haltiner assumed the chairmanship of the then Swiss Federal Banking Commission in 2006, taking over as chairman of the newly created Finma in 2009. He is standing down one year before the end of his mandate.

The finance ministry plans to submit a proposal concerning Haltiner's successor to the government in November.

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