Canada will formally request that France share information it may have about Canadians with UBS bank accounts that may help the North American country hunt for alleged tax dodgers, Revenue Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn said late last week, according to Reuters.

Mr Blackburn said authorities in France have confirmed to him that they have information on Canadians. Ottawa has been trying unsuccessfully to obtain the names of Canadian clients of UBS, whom it suspects of taking advantage of Swiss bank secrecy laws to hide assets and dodge taxes.

Canada has been seeking to obtain data about UBS clients after the Zurich-listed banking and wealth management giant was embroiled in a high profile case with US authorities last year.

Mr Blackburn said it was "not good news" for Canada that a Swiss federal court ruled last Friday that it was illegal for a financial regulator to have ordered UBS last year to hand over the files of 300 clients to US authorities. In a separate, civil case last year, the Swiss and US governments agreed that UBS should transfer details on 4,450 client accounts to the US.