Two years after UBS settled IRS charges that it had assisted American clients evade taxes, a second Switzerland bank - Credit Suisse - is under investigation for similar allegations.  There's one very big difference. 

In 2009, the Swiss government threw tremendous support behind UBS by negotiating a tax treaty with the United States.  Of course, UBS still had to pay a $785 million fine, and was required to disclose the names of thousands of its U.S. customers.  However, this time around, the Swiss government is turning its back on Credit Suisse.  Switzerland's parliament will not vote for a second tax treaty in support of Credit Suisse.

[C-I Note:   This is eerily similar to the government stepping in to avoid the collapse of Bear Stearns - so to speak - by arranging the sale of its business (i.e., company) to JPMorgan Chase.  Later that year, when Lehman Brothers was floundering, the government played laissez-faire and allowed the firm to collapse.  The markets then went into a tailspin.]

Credit Suisse, like UBS, is being investigated as part of a large U.S. probe into banks suspected of helping Americans evade taxes. In the case of UBS, the Swiss negotiated the release of information on 4,450 UBS accounts, an unprecedented lifting of the notorious Swiss banking veil, in trade for a swift end to what was already lengthy and costly investigation. 

The Swiss parliament is unwilling to again compromise the high levels of privacy that have turned the country's offshore banking into a multi-trillion dollar business. Credit Suisse is then forced to go it alone, and the bank is already feeling the pain:  three Credit Suisse private bankers were indicted by the U.S. last week for a total of seven so far.   [Reuters, 7/27/11]