Credit Suisse Group is currently holding negotiations with the US Justice Department to pay upto $1.6bn to resolve an investigation into its alleged complicity in helping Americans to evade US taxes.
The Swiss agency had been under relentless pressure from the US federal executives to plead guilty for its role in tax row, reported Reuters.
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If charged, Credit Suisse could be slammed with a penalty of around $1.02bn, which the bank has arranged beforehand for possible penalty payments in the US.
Although the US Justice Department has largely refrained from undertaking a criminal prosecution against global financial firms, the impact of a criminal plea on Credit Suisse is still unclear.
Earlier in 2009, the Justice Department had settled the charges of helping US citizens in evading taxes against Swiss banking major UBS through a $780m deal.
The more stringent approach against Credit Suisse is expected to be the outcome of severe rapping from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on investigations in February 2014, accusing the department of lenient handling of Swiss banks in tax dodging issue.
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By GlobalDataEarlier in May 2014, US Department of Justice had a meeting with Switzerland’s finance minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, who sought a fair and equal treatment of the Swiss banks involved in the probe.
The department stated that it has no intention of destabilizing Credit Suisse.
In February 2014, Credit Suisse agreed to pay US Securities and Exchange Commission $196m to resolve a case accusing the Swiss bank of providing brokerage and advisory services to US clients without registering with the SEC.
