Claims that Britain’s biggest bank helped wealthy clients cheat the UK out of millions of pounds in tax via HSBC’s private bank in Switzerland have been made. HSBC may faces criminal investigations. The suggestion, based on leaked documents, is that they allowed clients to withdraw cash, often in foreign currencies of little use in Switzerland, marketed schemes likely to enable wealthy clients to avoid European taxes, colluded with some clients to conceal undeclared “black” accounts from their domestic tax authorities and provided accounts to international criminals, corrupt businessmen and other high-risk individuals.
Whilst a numbered bank account is now illegal in most western countries, it is still part of Switzerland’s banking system. This dates from 1934. Article 47 of the Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks made it a criminal offence to disclose the identity of clients. A depositor’s true identity will be known to only a select group of employees, and in order to withdraw cash or make a wire transfer, the account holder is asked for a codeword. A breach of professional confidentiality, even for retired bankers or those who have had their licence revoked, is punishable by three years in jail. By 2018, Switzerland has committed to an automatic exchange of information about individual accounts, taxes, assets and income along with 50 other nations under an OECD agreement.
