In a startling announcement Friday, Switzerland said that it would work out a stricter definition of tax evasion, thereby cooperating with the international authorities with regard to tracking tax cheats. The move indicates that Switzerland has yielded somewhat to global pressures, quite on the lines of the Thursday decision by two other European tax havens - Liechtenstein and Andorra.

The announced moves by the tax havens have delivered a hard hit to the conventional European banking secrecy, in the midst of a global onslaught on tax evasion. The governments of the three countries would now extend help in international investigations pertaining to tax evasion and, if need be, would also provide data on accounts at banks within the area of their jurisdiction.

Regarding the proposed move by Switzerland, the country’s President Hans-Rudolf Merz said: “Against the background of the financial crisis, international cooperation has grown stronger particularly against tax crimes.” President Merz also reiterated that it would be only in the case of convincing proof of tax evasion that the Swiss banks would forego their secrecy clause.

Commenting on the move in technical terms, tax lawyer Scott D. Michel, of Caplin & Drysdale in Washington, D.C., said: “The adoption of the O.E.C.D standards is a significant signal that bank secrecy as it has existed for generations is coming to an end.”