[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

Credit Suisse will offer U.S. officials more, to settle a tax evasion probe, even while the bank faces vigorous from Switzerland's privacy watchdog and a legal complaint against HSBC for handing over data on its employees, which a lawyer said infringed Swiss privacy laws.  This fall, the Swiss bank said it would transfer more information on its money management arm for wealthy Americans to U.S. officials

[C-I Note: Perhaps to avoid a fine similar to the one UBS ended up paying to the IRS in 2009 - you remember:  a $780 million settlement payment after the IRS threatened to indict the firm.]

At Risk or Not At Risk

• At Risk: bank employees – though this time, they will be told before their names are disclosed to U.S. officials, according to a bank spokesman, unlike this summer when thousands of names included employees who weren't suspected of helping Americans evade taxes.
• Not At Risk: clients, whose names will not be part of the handover

Since U.S. justice and tax officials have accused 11 Swiss private banks of helping Americans dodge taxes through hidden Swiss offshore accounts, some things have changed – and not just at Credit Suisse:

• HSBC, Credit Suisse, and Julius Baer, which have already passed on about 10,000 employee names
• Swiss bankers have canceled travel plans outside Switzerland for fear of being arrested in connection with the U.S. probe.
• UBS no longer offers offshore accounts to American clients.

For further details, go to [Reuters, 9/17/12].