The treaty in which the Alpine state will be forced to provide data on clients suspected of tax evasion was embraced by the lower house of the Swiss parliament with a final 115-55 vote. The only time when it is lawful to give away client information under the present regime is in tax fraud cases.

The main proposed amendment, made by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, revolved around the possibility of the US authorities demanding information on groups of people rather than individuals, according to a spokesperson for the Swiss parliament.

The treaty will now be implemented in its original shape, which was approved by the upper house of parliament already in December of last year. The responsible government department has said, however, that it will wait until the US Senate approves the legislation, which was one of the amendments that parliament rejected on Monday evening. It is yet unclear when the US Senate will come to a decision.

Detractors of the tax plan have argued that it will undermine the country’s banking secrecy laws, which have contributed to the success of the financial industry that is crucial for the Swiss economy. Proponents of the treaty believe, however, that it will ease some of the immense pressure the country is under from the revenue-hungry US.

Because of the relentless crackdown on offshore tax evasion, many private banks in Switzerland and other parts of Europe have decided to turn down US business. UBS, Julius Baer, HSBC and C Hoare & Co are some of the European players that have stopped providing offshore banking to US clients.

Furthermore, after it emerged that Wegelin & Co was being investigated by US authorities for allegedly aiding wealthy Americans to evade taxes, the venerable private bank was sold to Raiffeisen in January this year for an undisclosed sum.