Swiss finmin hopes U.S. tax row solved this year

DAVOS (Reuters) - Switzerland has made progress in Davos at solving a dispute with the United States over untaxed money stashed in secret Swiss bank accounts and hopes for a deal this year, its finance minister said on Thursday.

"We hope to conclude the negotiations in 2012," Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told journalists after talks with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at the World Economic Forum.

Widmer-Schlumpf said Switzerland was already discussing possible fines its banking industry will have to secure a global civil settlement with U.S. authorities.

It is also trying to get the U.S. Department of Justice to drop criminal probes of 11 banks, including Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) and Julius Baer (BAER.VX).

"I assume we will be able to sort it out for these 11 banks as well as for the banking sector as a whole," she said.

Widmer-Schlumpf, who also holds the rotating Swiss presidency, said Geithner had recognized that the country had made major efforts to clean up its tax haven image.

U.S. authorities suspect tens of thousands of Americans have used Swiss banks to avoid paying billions of dollars in tax.

In 2009, UBS paid $780 million to settle criminal charges that it helped thousands of U.S. clients hide $20 billion.

(Reporting by Emma Thomasson, editing by Kirstin Ridley; For full Reuters coverage from Davos, go to: www.reuters.com/davos)