HSBC bosses sorry about tax scandal at Swiss arm
HSBC’S chief executive and chairman yesterday gave repeated apologies to MPs over tax evasion in its Swiss private banking arm.
But scrutiny of the bank is not over yet – former global private banking boss Clive Bannister could be called up next by MPs.
Chief executive Stuart Gulliver and chairman Douglas Flint told MPs they had worked hard to stop the wrongdoing happening again, and accepted a measure of blame for it. But both told the Treasury Select Committee they would not quit, as they were not directly involved in the unit at the time.
“I would like to put on the record an apology from both myself and Douglas for the unacceptable events that took place at our private bank in Switzerland in the mid-2000s, which is clearly an apology we’d like to make to you all, to our customers, to our shareholders, to the public at large,” said Gulliver.
The chief executive added that he understands his Swiss bank account and Panamanian company – designed, he said, to keep his pay private from colleagues – could look “unfamiliar and strange” to the public.
HSBC chairman Douglas Flint also apologised, and said that at a group level the bank had never allowed this behaviour.
“We are suffering from horrible reputational damage. We live on our reputation – no bank wants to associate itself with clients or behaviours which will do it damage,” he said.
Flint pointed some of the blame at the global private banking bosses at the time, Chris Meares and Clive Bannister.
“They certainly bear fairly direct responsibility for what went on in the private bank during their stewardship,” Flint said.
But he said the management on the ground in Switzerland were “most accountable” as outsiders could not access account details in the country.
Treasury committee member John Mann MP told City PM he wants to question Bannister over the unit’s operations, though there may not be time in the parliamentary schedule.
Bannister, who now heads Phoenix Group, declined to comment.