Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf leaves a session of the upper house in Bern, Switzerland on Wednesday.
Swiss lawmakers have pushed forward a government-backed bill aimed at ending a long-running dispute with the United States over tax evasion. Switzerland's upper house voted in favor of a bill presented by Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf as a way to allow Swiss banks to cooperate with US authorities without breaking Switzerland's strict client secrecy laws.
The bill's passage Wednesday in the Swiss capital Bern comes five months after a US tax evasion case led to the closure of Switzerland's oldest private bank, Wegelin & Co., after it admitted helping American tax cheats. The Swiss Government is seeking a compromise to end similar threats against more than a dozen banks, a sector vital to the economy. The debate next week goes to parliament's lower house for approval