HSBC clients’ data stolen in Switzerland

Category: World News

Date Added: 12 March 2010

STEVE SLATER

and LAURA MACINNIS

Geneva

INFORMATION on 24000 HSBC customers with Swiss accounts has been stolen, the British bank said yesterday, potentially exposing large numbers of international clients to prosecution by tax authorities in their home countries.

A former IT employee of Swiss subsidiary HSBC Private Bank (Suisse), identified by French authorities as Herve Falciani, stole the information between late 2006 and early 2007, the bank said. The accounts, held by individuals worldwide, were all opened before October 2006 and about 9000 of them have since been closed.

“We deeply regret this situation and unreservedly apologise to our clients for this threat to their privacy,” said Alexandre Zeller, CE of the Swiss subsidiary.

The bank said it had contacted the affected customers and did not believe the stolen data has allowed or will allow any unauthorised person to obtain access to the affected accounts.

The stolen information affects only accounts in Switzerland with the exception of its former subsidiary HSBC Guyerzeller Bank, it said. However, the theft could leave some of those account holders exposed to prosecution.

In recent cases of data theft from banks in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, the information was offered to foreign governments seeking to track down their nationals who had avoided paying their taxes by hiding money in Swiss accounts.

The French government said last year that it had obtained a list of 3000 French HSBC clients compiled from “numerous sources” including the former HSBC employee — identified by prosecutors in the French city of Aix-en-Provence as Falciani.

France later agreed to return the files to Switzerland, who in turn handed “copies of a significant portion of the data” back to the bank on March 3, HSBC said. “Based on the facts it would appear that the French authorities have copies and the Swiss authorities have copies,” HSBC spokesman Jezz Farr said.

The bank said French authorities had informed their Swiss counterparts that the data they still hold would “not be used inappropriately”.

It remained unclear whether that means France will not use the data to prosecute tax evaders.

Farr said the theft affected customers worldwide. “The accounts were held in Switzerland but the client base is international.”

HSBC said offering private banking services for rich customers remains “a core business” of the group, which has about 100000 private banking clients.

Shares in HSBC were down 0,05% at £7,01 in London yesterday. Sapa-AFP

We deeply regret this situation and unreservedly apologise to our clients for this threat to their privacy, says CE of bank

Source: Business Day