Europe’s biggest bank, HSBC said its chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, holds a bank account in Switzerland that was set up in 1998 to hold bonus payments, responding to a report in the Guardian newspaper that said he had a Swiss account that contained $7.6 million in 2007.
A spokeswoman for the bank gave details of the account and of other issues related to Gulliver’s tax status, following the Guardian story.
The spokeswoman said Gulliver set up the account when he was living and working in Hong Kong to hold bonus payments. Full tax was paid in Hong Kong on the bonus payments and Gulliver has voluntarily declared his Swiss account to UK tax authorities for a number of years, the spokeswoman said.
She said the account was set up in 1998 in the name of a Panamanian company for reasons of confidentiality «and this had no other purpose and provided no tax or other advantage.» She did not say how much the account contained.
There was no suggestion in the Guardian report that Gulliver broke any rules.
HSBC is under scrutiny after allegations that its private Swiss bank helped clients dodge taxes. Gulliver has admitted failings in HSBC’s Swiss arm in the period up to 2007 and apologised to investors and customers, but said the business has been transformed and standards are now up to scratch.
HSBC’s chairman Douglas Flint is due to appear before British lawmakers on Wednesday to answer questions about the bank’s alleged complicity in tax evasion.
HSBC reported a deeper-than-expected 17 percent slide in annual pretax profit and cut its earnings target, saying allegations its Swiss business had helped customers to dodge taxes had brought shame on the bank.
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