The US treasury said that the agreement will help Swiss and Japanese banks to meet forthcoming US tax regulations.
In February this year, the treasury said that it was negotiating with France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK to set up government-to-government information-sharing deals, reports Reuters.
The US tax law has worried foreign banks that have US clients as banks face penalties if they refuse to give the US certain client information required under FATCA.
The treasury said due to higher bank secrecy law, it was difficult to reach an amicable solution, but due to Swiss government assistance made it easy to comply and report accounts to the US authorities by granting an exception to Swiss criminal law.
In a co-operative move, the Swiss government is trying to get US tax investigations against 11 banks – including Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) and Julius Baer (BAER.VX).
The US authorities believe that the banks have assisted wealthy Americans to evade taxes through secret Swiss accounts.
The Swiss Bankers Association has welcomed the move of the government that the banks would be able to provide data directly to the US authorities and not via the government as in the solution proposed with the five European states.
"This better takes into account the particular characteristics of the Swiss financial center," the lobby group said in a statement.
