Page 167 - Bank Case Studies

2007 Jul: HSBC’s senior manager of group compliance warns that

the anti-money laundering committee in Mexico is “not

functioning properly”.

2007 Hervé Falciani, formerly an IT expert at HSBC’s Swiss

operation stole and leaked some client files indicating

“that may not have fully met their applicable tax
obligations”

2007 Acquisition of the Chinese Bank in Taiwan

Acquired IL&FS Investment, an Indian retail broking firm.

2008 Dec: Hervé Falciani, HSBC IT expert, is arrested by Swiss in
Geneva having hacked files from the bank, then released.

He had hacked into 30,000 accounts holding more than

$100bn in assets covering the period 2005-2007. He flees
to France with the data, while on bail where he is

detained.

2009 Jan: French authorities refuse to extradite Falciani to
Switzerland, instead start to investigate the data

themselves as they realise his information could reveal

the names of thousands of tax evaders.

2009 HSBC announced that it would shut down the branch

network of its HSBC Finance arm in the U.S., leading to
nearly 6,000 job losses and leaving only the credit card

business to continue operating.

HSBC's share price fell 24.14%, with 12 million shares sold
in the last few seconds of trading