Credit Suisse is set to disclose the names of more of its staff to the US prosecutors, who aided wealthy American citizens to evade taxes by moving their assets abroad, revealed Swiss Handelszeitung newspaper.
The decision comes after the Swiss lower house stalled the progress on a tax-evasion bill that would allow the country’s banks to share data with the US government.
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With the bill thwarted, the government is looking for another way to enable banks to hand over information to the US.
The country’s Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf had previously said the government would consider issuing an executive order.
Several Swiss banks are being targeted directly by US authorities for assisting Americans evade taxes, following a US$780 million settlement with UBS in 2009.
On 14 June 2013, the US tax authorities, reportedly, filed a request for legal assistance to identify former American clients of Wegelin & Co, Switzerland’s oldest private bank, who are suspected of tax dodging. It is the fourth such request against a Swiss financial institute.
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By GlobalDataIn January 2013, Wegelin said it would shut its doors following a US indictment on charges of helping wealthy Americans evade taxes through secret accounts, and later pleaded guilty, admitted wrong-doing, as well as paid US$58 million to US authorities.
At the end of 2012, the number of Swiss banks under investigation by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) increased to 13, including Credit Suisse, Geneva private bank Pictet and Bank Frey.
At the end of May, Julius Baer was ordered by the Swiss government to hand over data on US clients that will be passed on to US tax authorities. Julius Baer is, reportedly, working on providing the data.
