US authorities indicted three Credit Suisse private bankers yesterday, one being a senior executive, on charges that they allegedly helped US citizens evade taxes, Reuters reported.

Federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia, filed criminal charges against Markus Walder, the former head of North America offshore banking and a former senior Credit Suisse executive; Susanne Rüegg Meier, a former manager; and Andreas Bachmann, a former banker at a subsidiary of the bank. Also charged was Josef Dorig, the founder of a Swiss trust company that worked with the bank.

The charges did not name the bank in question but a government person briefed on the matter identified it as Credit Suisse, the news agency said.

A spokesperson for the Zurich-listed bank reportedly said: "Credit Suisse is committed to a fully compliant cross-border business. Subject to our Swiss legal obligations and throughout this process we will continue to cooperate with the US authorities in an effort to resolve these matters."

The four individuals were charged with conspiring to defraud the US, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service by helping wealthy US citizens to evade taxes. Walder, a managing director, was accused of, among other things, lying to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2005 and 2007, and misleading the IRS about the bank's activities with US customers and on US soil.

The indictments highlight how US authorities have broadened their net in the hunt for alleged tax dodgers; in 2009, UBS paid a $780 million fine to settle criminal charges that it helped wealthy US citizens evade taxes, and it has, in a separate civil case, handed over client details. HSBC has also been targeted by the US authorities. A number of Swiss banks no longer provide offshore banking to US persons.