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London. Switzerland is close to signing sweeping tax treaties with Germany and Britain that are intended to ensure that assets belonging to citizens of those countries held in Swiss banks would no longer escape tax.

The deals form another step in Swiss efforts to clean up the country’s image, under pressure from US prosecutors as well as European countries that have been willing to pay for lists of client names that were stolen by bank employees.

‘’Being surrounded by the EU and a significant wealth management center, Switzerland has chosen to make this move earlier rather than later,” said Luc Thevenoz, a law professor at the University of Geneva.

The treaty with Germany is likely to be signed first, possibly as early as Wednesday, followed by a similar deal with Britain.

Both agreements should have broad effects, analysts and lawyers say. Clients will be able to retain secrecy, but at a price, and some may choose to move to other offshore locales.

Britain and Germany will win billions in needed revenue and, in return, will no longer pursue Swiss banks in criminal cases related to a lack of compliance with tax rules.

And the Swiss banking model will shift further from reliance on managing undeclared money. That will particularly affect smaller banks.

Banking secrecy was enshrined in law in Switzerland in the 1930s and has been used to protect anonymity as well as to avoid taxes, which is not a crime by itself under Swiss law.

Switzerland agreed in 2009 to apply new standards in bilateral tax treaties, allowing for an exchange of information in tax evasion as well as fraud cases.

The New York Times