Swiss regulator appeals court ruling on UBS data

(Refiles to add dropped word "broke" in first paragraph)

ZURICH Jan 21 (Reuters) - Swiss financial watchdog FINMA has appealed a court ruling that said it broke the law last year when it ordered UBS(UBSN.VX)(UBS.N) to hand over the files of nearly 300 clients to U.S. tax officials.

In February 2009 FINMA ordered UBS to pass on client data to Washington to allow the bank to settle U.S. tax fraud criminal charges, weakening Swiss bank secrecy rules and prompting wealthy clients to pull billions of francs from their UBS accounts.

The Swiss administrative court said on Jan. 8 that FINMA's decision was unlawful, but the regulator said on Thursday it was challenging the ruling.[ID:nLDE6070PP]

"The FINMA Board of Directors has decided to refer the Federal Administrative Court ruling on the order to release client data to the US authorities to the Federal Supreme Court," FINMA said in a release.

"In doing so, FINMA is using the opportunity to have Switzerland's supreme court pass judgment on the extent of the Financial Market Supervisory Authority's legal latitude in crisis situations."