HSBC bosses grovel over ‘unacceptable’ tax practices
HSBC bosses have put on a public show of contrition during a grilling by MPs over recent scandals surrounding its tax affairs, by apologising for ‘unacceptable’ practices at its Swiss arm.
Group chief executive Stuart Gulliver has faced a barrage of criticism for helping clients to avoid paying tax, conceding that the episode had damaged ‘trust and confidence’ in the business.
This relates to a series of scandals including manipulation of foreign exchange rates and jerry rigging benchmarks for international interest rates.
HSBC chairman Douglas Flint conceded that there could be more nasty’s lurking in the woodwork after admitting that he did not have ‘line of sight to what's happening at lower levels in the organisation’ and was thus braced for further scandal.
Gulliver himself has been forced to defend holding a Swiss bank account through a Panamanian firm, insisting that its existence was to protect his financial privacy from staff rather than to evade tax. He told the committee: “The important point is I've paid UK tax on my HSBC earnings during that entire period [when resident in the UK], so the amount of tax I have paid is the fair and appropriate amount."