In the wake of last week’s reports that the German government will pay for stolen data on alleged tax evaders using Swiss accounts, media reports said Germany is weighing fresh offers from informants. Meanwhile, other countries, including the UK, are considering paying for the bank account data.

A report by the Wall Street Journal said that German officials were weighing fresh offers from informants after deciding last week to pay €2.5 million ($3.4 million) for the names of suspected tax evaders.

The reports, if borne out by developments, demonstrate how determined countries such as Germany and the UK are to halt tax evasion, even if this means using techniques that would be ruled as inadmissible in many regular investigations of criminal misconduct.

Authorities from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the data had been offered, reached a deal in recent days with a confidential informant to acquire an initial trove of secret Swiss banking data, a German official familiar with the investigation said over the weekend, according to the WSJ.

The records, which authorities said originated from a Swiss bank, include account details of some 1,500 Germans suspected of using the Swiss accounts to hide undeclared money. German finance officials, who have reviewed samples of the data set, now believe the information could yield €400 million in back taxes, more than double initial estimates.

Officials in the southern German states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg said they also were reviewing offers of banking information from Switzerland, but didn't provide any details about the sources.

An official familiar with the investigations said investigators in three German states are examining account records hacked or stolen from UBS, HSBC Holdings and Julius Baer Group. All three banks declined to comment on what they called speculation, the newspaper said.

According to the Financial Times, the UK is in talks with Germany about buying stolen Swiss bank data.