US and Swiss reach tax evasion accord Switzerland and the US have agreed on a landmark programme that will finally give Swiss banks the chance to lay to rest a simmering dispute over their alleged role in helping Americans evade taxes. However, participation in the deal will come at a heavy cost for Switzerland's lenders, which will have to provide the US with details of their cross-border business and, in some cases, also have to pay heavy fines. Since forcing UBS, Switzerland's largest, bank to pay $780m for its role in abetting tax evasion in 2009, the US has been doggedly pursuing Swiss lenders it believed committed similar transgressions. Fourteen banks, including Credit Suisse and Julius Baer, are already under investigation. The new programme, published on Thursday by the US Department of Justice, does not directly apply to these so-called "category one" banks, but rather is targeted at the 300 or so other Swiss banks not yet under investigation. However, it may also pave the way for the category one banks to reach settlements of their own. According to people familiar with the situation, the DoJ had been unwilling to let these banks settle disputes until a framework was in place to deal with the rest of the Swiss banking sector. Eric Holder, US attorney-general, hailed the deal as a way of bringing "tax dollars back to the US Treasury from across the globe." "This programme will significantly enhance the Justice Department's ongoing efforts to aggressively pursue those who attempt to evade the law by hiding their assets outside of the United States," he said. Switzerland will encourage banks to participate in the programme, under the terms of which those banks not in category one are split into three further groups. Category two banks - or those that are not under investigation but believe they may have breached US laws - will be able to seek non-prosecution agreements from the US. But in return, they will have to provide details of their activities in the US and pay fines of varying severity depending on how many undeclared US clients they had and when these were taken on. The fines will be levied on all undeclared accounts that contained more than $50,000; for accounts that existed before August 1 2008, the fine will be 20 per cent of the maximum aggregate dollar value of these accounts. For accounts opened between August 1 2008, and February 28 2009, the fine will rise to 30 per cent, and for those opened after this date, it will be 50 per cent. Banks in categories three and four will not have to pay fines. Banks in category three will have to prove that they have not breached US law, while category four is for Swiss local banks. Credit Suisse, which started exiting the US in 2008, welcomed the deal. The Swiss finance ministry had no comment ahead of a press conference on Friday morning. Julius Baer and the Swiss Bankers Association also declined to comment ahead of that meeting.