The Geneva-based private banking unit of Standard Chartered has reached a deal with US authorities under the Swiss Bank Program.

Standard Chartered Bank's Swiss arm has signed a non-prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice over secret client accounts.

The Swiss unit will pay a penalty of $6.337 million under the DoJ's Swiss Bank Program, which was launched in 2013 to allow Swiss banks to avoid criminal prosecution in the US by advising that they had reason to believe that they had committed tax-related criminal offenses in connection with undeclared US-related accounts. SCB Switzerland agreed to cooperate in any related criminal or civil proceedings and to demonstrate its implementation of controls to stop future misconduct.

Since August 2008 SCB Switzerland held 22 US-related accounts, comprising a total of $33.1 million in assets under management. The bank helped certain US citizens evade their US tax obligations, the department said. Among other things, it agreed to hold account statements and other mail relating to some US-related accounts and provided account statements which contained only the account number in order to further insure the secrecy of the identity of the accountholder.

SCB Switzerland is now in liquidation after the group decided to shut down its Swiss private banking operations early last year for commercial reasons.