Reuters reports that the decision shines a light on the difficult procedure of balancing the Swiss traditions of personal privacy with US demands for data regarding banks under formal US investigation.

Harsh punishment

The lawyer, Douglas Hornung - a Geneva-based lawyer acting for the former Credit Suisse employee in the case - added that the court ruling was made last week, confirming a preliminary decision in January.
The banks named in the case have been feeding information on their US activities to authorities for months in order to avoid harsh punishment for assisting wealthy Americans to evade taxes.
Mr Hornung, who also represents other former bankers, said the court’s ruling could set a precedent and ‘could be repeated for other employees who had access to US clients.’
Credit Suisse spokesman Marc Dosch declined to comment.