Bank Sarasin hit by client data breach

Swiss-based Bank Sarasin have fired an employee after it was discovered that he illegally passed bank data on to an external third party. Although the employee has not been named it has been disclosed that he worked in IT support. The employee has admitted passing on documents concerning currency transactions of the family of Phillip Hildebrand, chairman of the Swiss National bank, to a lawyer with close links to the Swiss Peoples Party. The employee said that this lawyer then arranged a meeting with National Councillor Christoph Blocher which took place on 11 November 2011.

GalenStops January 4, 2012

Swiss-based Bank Sarasin has fired an IT
employee who illegally passed confidential client account data to a
lawyer with alleged links to the Swiss People’s Party.

The employee, who turned himself in, admitted
passing on documents concerning currency transactions of the family
of Phillip Hildebrand, chairman of the Swiss National Bank.

The employee said that the lawyer then
arranged a meeting with National Councillor Christoph Blocher which
took place on 11 November 2011, according to a Bank Sarasin
statement.

Criminal misconduct

Bank Sarasin said it immediately terminated
the employee’s contract after he admitted his criminal
misconduct.

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The bank said it had notified Phillip
Hildebrand and apologised for the client confidentiality
breach.

Bank Sarasin said it informed the Swiss
Federal Financial Market Supervisory Authority of this infringement
and have reserved the right to take legal action.

Sarasin’s case has parallels to the client
data breach suffered by HSBC Suisse in 2010. In March 2010, a
former IT worker at the bank, Hervé Falciani, passed on the details
of about 15,000 HSBC Suisse clients to French prosecutors.

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