The European Union official who heads up tax policy has tried to persuade Switzerland to disclose more information about clients of its big banking industry as part of a drive to combat tax evasion, Reuters reported.

Commissioner Algirdas Semeta's meeting with Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf in Bern came as UK prime minister David Cameron was due to put his goal of fighting tax evasion on the agenda of a Group of Eight summit he is hosting early this week in Northern Ireland. The G8 has already prompted some groups, such as international law firm Withers, to warn that policymakers have dangerously blurred the distinction between tax evasion – which is a criminal offence in most nations – and avoidance. (To view an article on that point, see here.)

"It is widely accepted worldwide today that the era of bank secrecy is over," Semeta reportedly told a news conference after the talks.

"Switzerland can gain from a stronger tax agreement with the EU with automatic exchange of information at its core. It would be a clear signal from Switzerland that it supports fair play," Semeta said.

Switzerland, with $2 trillion in assets under management, is under pressure from the EU and the US to get rid of its historic bank secrecy laws.

In May, the Swiss government approved legislative moves to allow banks to partly break with long-running secrecy laws and draw a line under a row with the US authorities. However, the measures have proven to be controversial in Switzerland and it is not a foregone conclusion that they will be enacted.

Since 2009, when UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, settled civil and criminal charges over claims that it aided tax evaders, Swiss banks have come under pressure to disclose information, but they are banned by strict Swiss laws dating back to 1934 to divulge account details. Meanwhile a number of Swiss banks have ceased to provide offshore banking to US citizens. Among the most dramatic casualties of change has been Wegelin, Switzerland’s oldest bank (founded in 1741), which in January pleaded guilty in New York City to conspiring to help conceal client money from the Internal Revenue Service.