HSBC is facing charges of fraud and money laundering from authorities in Belgium, who accuse the Swiss arm of Britain’s biggest bank of having helped wealthy customers evade tax.
The latest blow to the reputation of the banking industry comes days after the bank was hit with almost £400m of fines for allowing traders to rig foreign exchange markets, along with five other banks.
The Belgian authorities said: “The Swiss bank is suspected of having knowingly eased and promoted fiscal fraud by making offshore companies available to certain privileged clients,” the Belgian authorities said.
“The damage done to the Belgian state is estimated at hundreds of millions of euros.”
HSBC warned at its interim results in August that it had been informed that “magistrates in Belgium and France are conducting inquiries regarding whether HSBC Private Bank Suisse SA acted appropriately in relation to certain customers who had Belgian and French tax reporting requirements, respectively”.
After the announcement by the Belgian prosecutors, HSBC said its Swiss private bank “has been notified that it has been placed under formal investigation by a Belgian judge who, along with the French authorities, is examining whether the bank acted appropriately in the past in relation to certain clients who had Belgian tax-reporting requirements”.
HSBC added: “Both the Belgian and French investigations have been notified in our filings previously and we will continue to cooperate to the fullest extent possible.”
The case relates to a former employee, Herve Falciani, who faces allegations that he stole information about the bank’s clients which has become known as the Lagarde list, named after Christine Lagarde, who was finance minister of France and is now head of the International Monetary Fund.