New Delhi, May 15: The parliament of Switzerland will take a call on amending the country's rules to facilitate information sharing on stolen data of account holders in Swiss banks.

"Switzerland has decided to follow international standards, including those framed by the OECD, in sharing information and providing assistance to foreign countries probing such cases, but we have to ask our Parliament to make changes in our laws," Johann N. Schneider Ammann, Switzerland's economic affairs minister, said here today.

Bern does not entertain requests to share information on accounts that have been stolen and made available to foreign countries. A recent stolen list of HSBC account holders had the names of as many as 1,000 Indians.

The Indian government, on its part, has pressed for information on residents who have admitted to accounts in Swiss banks. New Delhi is keen to sign a bilateral pact with Switzerland on the automatic sharing of information.

"A large number of account holders have made admissions before the Government of India. We have made the request to Switzerland and we have asked them to expedite the process of confirmation of details that we have sought," finance minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after his meeting with Ammann.

A proposal would be moved in the Swiss parliament in the second half of this year to consider providing "administrative assistance" to foreign countries, including India, the Swiss minister said.

Ammann, who is in India on a three-day visit, said Switzerland was sensitive to the fact that the black money issue was important for India and needed to be resolved.

The minister said the Federal Council, the apex decision making body in Switzerland (like the Cabinet in India), has decided to provide a "clarification" to the parliament on the legal situation for administrative assistance in cases of stolen data.

He said it was too early to make any assessment of the impact of India's new black money law on Swiss banks. The procedures and the law itself first needed to be understood.

Trade talks

Ammann held meetings with commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman and skill development minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

He discussed the possibility of a free agreement between the European Free Trade Association (Switzerland is a member) and India.

"I am sure the negotiation team will continue its discussions and reach some conclusion on sensitive issues such as data protection and IPR," he said.

Bilateral trade between India and Switzerland stood at $21 billion in 2013-14.