The US tax evasion investigation against UBS has killed traditional offshore banking and wealth managers must reform their products and services to survive, industry experts and bankers say, according to Reuters.

UBS's decision to hand over client details to the US tax authorities and a global crackdown on tax evasion are denting the allure for banks to shelter untaxed money, experts say.

"The entire offshore banking model seems to be dead," Teodoro Cocca, a professor of wealth and asset management at the Johannes Kepler University in Austria, was quoted as saying by the news service.

"Forget bank secrecy and focus on onshore or on tax compliant business," he told an audience of Swiss private bankers.

Experts say there has been almost no growth in the offshore private banking business in recent years, even though some small players are still attracting tax-sensitive money. The returns offered are just becoming too risky, Mr Cocca said.

"I have been for years an advocate that Switzerland should build from a position of strength and attract capital not because of confidentiality. Our big offshore centre has to learn the onshore skills to survive," said Pierre de Weck, head of Private Wealth Management at Deutsche Bank.