The US has rejected signing up to a global deal involving Switzerland that is designed to settle tax evasion disputes, Swiss media reports said.

The SonntagsZeitung newspaper said the US authorities had written to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and the finance ministry in Switzerland informing them of their decision.

There has been speculation that the US and Switzerland, which have been at loggerheads over cross-border tax issues in recent years, were to agree on a voluntary disclosure scheme that would impose fines and require banks to hand over client data in return for the US agreeing to halt legal action.

The disputes have already claimed one major victim: UBS. In 2009, Switzerland’s biggest bank and the third largest wealth manager by assets had to pay a $780 million fine to settle criminal charges of helping rich US citizens evade taxes. Later that year, Switzerland and the US agreed that UBS must pass over thousands of client account details to settle a separate civil legal case. The bank, along with a number of other Swiss financial institutions, no longer provides offshore bank services to US clients.

Credit Suisse, meanwhile, is being investigated by the US Department of Justice as part of a broader industry inquiry, as reported by this publication a few days ago. The investigation concerns historical private banking services provided on a cross-border basis to US persons, and the bank received a letter notifying it that it was also being investigated. It is not just Swiss banks that have come under the microscope; HSBC has come under investigation, as reported earlier this year, and the probe widened to include Israeli and Asian banks.