Credit score Suisse on the defensive after soiled cash information leak

ZURICH/VIENNA, Feb 21 (Reuters) – Credit score Suisse (CSGN.S) was plunged into a grimy cash scandal on Monday after media retailers reported the Swiss financial institution had managed accounts for human rights abusers, fraudsters and businessmen who had been positioned beneath sanctions.

One particular person leaked info on the accounts, which had been held in a long time starting from the Forties to 2010s, to Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The German day by day then shared it with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Venture and 46 different information organisations together with the New York Occasions, Britain’s Guardian and France’s Le Monde.

The Panama Papers-style investigations had been printed on Sunday and are available as Credit score Suisse, which denies any wrongdoing, tries to shake off a sequence of risk-management scandals and a 1.6 billion Swiss franc ($1.75 billion) loss in 2021 that has pummelled its inventory. learn extra

The New York Occasions mentioned the leaked information lined greater than 18,000 accounts collectively holding greater than $100 billion.

The revelations additionally turned the highlight on Switzerland solely a bit of greater than three years after it ditched, beneath U.S. stress, a centuries-old tradition of secrecy that had made the Alpine state a worldwide no-questions-asked vault for the world’s wealthy.

“For CS, even when the allegations are unfounded, this raises questions on its enterprise practices in wealth administration and may tie up administration having to spend time preventing fires as an alternative of shifting ahead,” RBC analysts mentioned.

Shares in Credit score Suisse, which fell by virtually 1 / 4 final 12 months, had been virtually 3% decrease by mid-afternoon.

“Credit score Suisse strongly rejects the allegations and insinuations concerning the financial institution’s purported enterprise practices,” the financial institution mentioned in a press release issued on Sunday night time in response to the consortium’s experiences.

Switzerland’s monetary watchdog, the Swiss Monetary Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) which in 2018 rapped Credit score Suisse for deficiencies in preventing cash laundering, mentioned it was in touch with the financial institution concerning the matter.

“Compliance with cash laundering laws has been a spotlight of our supervisory actions for years now,” a FINMA spokesperson mentioned.

After a name from members of the European Parliament to assessment Switzerland’s banking practices and maybe embrace the nation within the EU’s dirty-money blacklist, the finance ministry’s State Secretariat for Worldwide Finance mentioned in an emailed assertion that the nation meets “all worldwide requirements on the change of knowledge in tax issues and on preventing towards cash laundering, terrorist financing and corruption”. learn extra

It added that Switzerland was now collaborating within the automated change of knowledge on account information with greater than 100 international locations.

Credit score Suisse described the difficulty as “predominantly historic”, including that info had been taken out of context.

The financial institution mentioned it had acquired quite a few inquiries from the consortium up to now three weeks and reviewed lots of the accounts.

“Roughly 90% of the reviewed accounts are right now closed or had been within the means of closure previous to receipt of the press inquiries, of which over 60% had been closed earlier than 2015,” it mentioned.

The financial institution mentioned that it was glad with its checks on the remaining accounts.

“The Swiss monetary centre has no real interest in cash of doubtful origin. It attaches the best significance to the upkeep of its repute and integrity,” the Swiss Bankers Affiliation mentioned.

($1 = 0.9167 Swiss francs)

Reporting by Francois Murphy in Vienna, Michael Shields in Zurich and Francesco Guarascio in Brussels; further reporting by Bartosz Dabrowski in Gdansk; Enhancing by Frances Kerry, David Goodman, Kirsten Donovan

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