Obama Wants More Power To Force Banks To Disclose Foreigners' Accounts

Meet Uncle Sam, global financial leper

The Obama administration may soon ask Congress for the power to require more disclosure by U.S. banks of information about foreign clients' accounts to those clients' home governments, as part of a crackdown on tax evasion, sources said on Monday.

In a move facing resistance from some in the U.S. banking industry, two tax industry sources said the administration was considering asking Congress in an upcoming White House budget proposal for the authority to require more disclosure from U.S. banks.

The information-sharing effort stems from a fight by the Treasury Department against offshore tax evasion under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, adopted in 2010 and set to begin taking effect at the end of 2013.