Julius Baer, Switzerland's third-largest wealth manager, said it expects to pay about $547 million to settle a US investigation into how it helped Americans evade taxes, clearing the way for other Swiss banks to resolve similar criminal inquiries.

The Zurich-based bank reached an agreement in principle with the US Justice Department, it said in a statement.

Chief executive Boris Collardi had said he wanted to resolve the US investigation by the end of 2015.

The announcement came as the Justice Department concludes a disclosure programme in which 75 Swiss banks have avoided prosecutions this year by paying more than $1 billion and disclosing how they helped US clients cheat the Internal Revenue Service. – (Bloomberg)