HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) incurred
‘significant expenses’ in 2011 investigating US client related
activities.
HSBC’s Swiss subsidiary reported other
operating expenses of CHF315m in 2011, an 11% increase compared
with CHF284m in 2010.
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“We incurred significant expenses for
conducting investigations into our past US client related
activities which were carried out in response to requests from
various US government agencies,” HSBC (Suisse) said in its 2011
annual report.
The operating expenses rose due to “ongoing
investment programme in the information security and the cost of
regulatory compliance impacted expenditure during the year,” the
bank said.
The ongoing investment programme in
information security at HSBC came after the Swiss Financial Market
Supervisory Authority (FINMA) reprimanded HSBC Swiss unit for theft
of an estimated 15,000 clients accounts last year.
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By GlobalDataHSBC probe part of wider
trend
The investigation of HSBC Suisse by US
authorities is part of a wider probe into foreign banks’ advice to
US residents with offshore accounts.
It comes after HSBC stopped offering wealth
management services to US citizens from offices outside the US in
August 2011.
On 2 February, US authorities charged
Switzerland’s oldest private bank Wegelin for allegedly helping US
citizens hide more than $1.2bn from the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS).
