HSBC is to pay a cool 40 million Swiss francs (£28m) to Swiss authorities in order to end the money laundering investigation into its private bank in Geneva.
The money will close the investigation into “suspected aggravated money laundering” without admission of guilt.
Instead of such an admission, the bank will pay for what it called “past organisational deficiencies”.
Although tax evasion is not a crime in Switzerland, authorities in Geneva raided HSBC in February after details of how the private bank’s wealthy clients were being helped to avoid tax were published. Also published were references to assistance given to drug and weapons smugglers on money laundering.
“HSBC Private Bank [in Switzerland] has acknowledged that the compliance culture and standards of due diligence in place in the Bank in the past were not as robust as they are today,” a statement read.
“In recent years the Bank has undergone a radical transformation. It has implemented numerous initiatives designed to prevent its banking services being used to evade taxes or launder money.”
But it is not all over for HSBC. Authorities in the US, France, Belgium and Argentina are still investigating tax evasion at the bank.
The private bank now has some 10,000 accounts, having lost around 20,000 since 2007.
