Judge Alan Gold must certainly be enjoying his moment in the sun in Miami. After all, the federal judge is presiding over the landmark civil case launched by the US Internal Revenue Service to force UBS to reveal the names of some 52,000 unidentified US taxpayers it suspects of holding undeclared offshore accounts with the big Swiss bank.

Whatever the outcome – whether the Swiss and the US governments will reach an out of court settlement in the next three weeks or whether the affair will go to trial – many people consider it will ultimately decide the future of bank secrecy and secret bank accounts.