匯豐稅務醜聞有損銀行保密理念

Soon after Stuart Gulliverbecame chief executive of HSBC at the start of 2011 he hung a “for sale” sign on the Swiss private bank it had owned since completing the acquisition of a rival more than a decade earlier.

歐智華(Stuart Gulliver)2011年初出任匯豐(HSBC)行政總裁後不久，便着手掛牌出售匯豐瑞士私人銀行。這傢俬人銀行是十多年前匯豐從競爭對手那裏收購來的。

Mr Gulliver abandoned the sale process after a lukewarm response from potential buyers. Yet given the furore this week over revelations of what had been going on at HSBC’s Swiss private bank at the time, it is easy to understand why he was eager to exit the business.

在看到潛在買家的反應比較冷淡後，歐智華放棄了出售。不過，考慮到匯豐瑞士私人銀行當時的作爲本週被泄露後引發的轟動，人們很容易理解他當時爲何急着退出這塊業務了。

Leaked bank account documents for clients of HSBC’s Swiss private bank between 2005 and 2007 have found their way to the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other news groups.

遭泄露的2005年至2007年間匯豐瑞士私人銀行客戶銀行賬戶文件，幾經周折到了華盛頓國際調查記者聯盟(International

Consortium of Investigative Journalists)和其他新聞組織手中。

There are 60,000 leaked files, some of which provide details of how the bank was aware of tax-avoidance and wrongdoing by some clients. The total value held in the bank accounts exceeds $100bn for 100,000 wealthy clients. Yesterday news media published revelations about widespread tax-avoidance practices in HSBC’s Swiss operation at the time, prompting an outcry from some quarters about why governments — who have had these documents for almost five years — have not done more to prosecute people where appropriate.

遭泄露的文件有6萬份，其中一些文件詳細記述了這傢俬人銀行如何知悉某些客戶的避稅和不當行爲。該行爲10萬名富有客戶持有的資產總價值超過1000億美元。昨天，新聞媒體報道了相關爆料，揭露出當時在匯豐瑞士私人銀行普遍存在的避稅操作，這導致某些方面的人士對政府發出強烈抗議，他們質疑已掌握這些文件將近5年的政府爲何不在條件適宜時採取更多措施起訴嫌疑人。

“This is extremely damaging both for the bank and for the concept of banking secrecy,” says a rival Swiss banker, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“無論是對銀行，還是對銀行保密理念，這都是極爲有害的，”來自對手公司的一名瑞士銀行家匿名錶示。

“HSBC’s franchise was already pretty damaged here, which is why they tried to sell it a few years ago.”

“匯豐這塊特許經營業務當時已經千瘡百孔，這就是爲什麼幾年前他們試圖賣掉它。”

The reports allege that HSBC’s Swiss private bank provided large, untraceable bricks of cash in foreign currencies to clients and colluded with them to conceal “black” accounts from tax authorities. Code names including Captain Kirk, Painter and Capitaine Haddock were used to disguise clients’ identities. It also “aggressively marketed” schemes likely to enable wealthy European clients to avoid taxes. France, Belgium and Argentina have launched formal probes into allegations that HSBC helped citizens of those countries to hide undeclared money in accounts at its Swiss private bank.

這些報道聲稱，匯豐瑞士私人銀行向客戶提供難以追蹤的成捆外幣現金，並與他們串通向稅務部門隱瞞“黑”賬戶。“柯克船長”(Captain Kirk)、“油漆工”(Painter)和“阿道克船長”(Capitaine Haddock)等代號被用於掩飾客戶的真實身份。它還“積極推銷”一些很可能讓富有的歐洲客戶能夠避稅的方案。法國、比利時和阿根廷已針對有關匯豐幫助本國公民在匯豐瑞士私人銀行隱匿未申報財產的說法啓動了正式調查。

In the UK, investigations by the authorities have resulted in about £135m of unpaid tax, interest and penalties being handed over by the British citizens involved, only one of whom — Michael Shanly, a property developer — has been prosecuted for tax evasion.

在英國，有關部門展開的調查已導致涉案英國公民繳納了約1.35億英鎊欠繳稅款、利息和罰款，這些涉案公民中只有一人——地產開發商邁克爾•尚利(Michael Shanly)——已受到起訴，罪名是逃稅。

HSBC said many private banks at the time, including its own Swiss operation, had “a number of clients that may not have been fully compliant with their applicable tax obligations. We acknowledge and are accountable for past compliance and control failures.”

匯豐稱，包括其自身的瑞士業務在內，當時很多私人銀行都有“大量客戶可能沒有充分遵守自己適用的納稅義務。我行承認過去在合規和管控上存在失誤，並對此負責。”

The bank said: “We have taken significant steps over the past several years to implement reforms and exit clients who do not meet strict new HSBC standards.” It added that its private bank client base had shrunk 70 per cent in a decade.

該行表示：“我行已在過去幾年裏採取重大步驟實施改革，與達不到匯豐嚴格新標準的客戶終止業務關係。”它補充稱，過去十年其私人銀行客戶羣已縮水了70%。

It also said that the acquisition of Republic National Bank of New York and Safra Republic Holdings in 1999 — accounting for the bulk of its Swiss private bank — brought with it “a very different client base and had a significantly different culture to HSBC”.

匯豐還表示，1999年對紐約利寶銀行(Republic National Bank of New York)和Safra Republic Holdings的收購（匯豐瑞士私人銀行主要脫胎於此次收購），爲它帶來了“一個截然不同的客戶羣，（這塊業務）有着與匯豐截然不同的文化。”

“The business acquired was not fully integrated into HSBC, allowing different cultures and standards to persist,” the bank said. “With hindsight, it’s clear that too many small and high-risk accounts were maintained and the business was stretched over more than 150 geographical markets.”

“購得的這塊業務沒有充分融入匯豐，這使得不同的文化和標準得以繼續存在。”匯豐稱，“事後看來，顯然保有了太多的高風險小賬戶，而且這塊業務鋪得太廣，覆蓋了逾150個地區市場。”

HSBC is one of several Swiss banks still being investigated by the US Department of Justice for allegedly helping American citizens to evade the taxman. UBS and Credit Suisse have settled with the DoJ, paying fines of $780m and $2.6bn respectively.

匯豐是仍在接受美國司法部(US Department of Justice)調查的幾家瑞士銀行之一，這些銀行涉嫌幫助美國公民逃稅。瑞銀(UBS)和瑞信(Credit Suisse)已與美國司法部達成和解，分別支付了7.8億和26億美元罰款。

Switzerland has signed agreements with several European countries to allow clients of Swiss banks to declare money that had been hidden from tax authorities in return for paying the tax they owe, interest and potential fines.

瑞士已與一些歐洲國家簽署協議，以使瑞士銀行的客戶能夠申報以前向稅務部門隱瞞的資金，交換條件是要支付他們欠繳的稅款、利息及可能的罰金。

Mr Gulliver has stressed the importance of keeping HSBC out of trouble since he took over. The bank paid almost $2bn in fines and signed a five-year deferred prosecution agreement with US authorities in December 2012 after admitting that it processed drug-trafficking proceeds through Mexico and transmitted funds from sanctioned countries including Iran.

歐智華上任以來已強調過讓匯豐遠離麻煩的重要性。2012年12月，在承認經辦了墨西哥毒梟的販毒所得和幫助客戶從伊朗等受制裁國家轉移出資金後，該行支付了近20億美元罰款並與美國監管部門達成了延期起訴協議。

The agreement puts it at risk of a criminal conviction and potential loss of its crucial US banking licence if it commits another crime in that period. The tax-dodging allegations relate to actions that happened before the deal.

根據這項協議，如果匯豐在那段時間內再有不法行爲，它可能會面臨刑事定罪，並有可能失去其關鍵的美國銀行業牌照。本文上面提到的涉嫌逃避稅收的操作，發生在該協議簽署之前。

There are signs that HSBC has been dismantling its private bank, which produced 3 per cent of the group’s $12.3bn of total pre-tax profits in the first half of 2014. Krishna Patel, HSBC’s global head of private banking, resigned in December 2012. Alexandre Zeller, head of global private banking for Europe, Middle East and Africa, left in February of that year. HSBC has pulled out of its stately Geneva lakefront offices in a sign of the depth of change at its Swiss operations.

有跡象顯示，匯豐已在剝離其私人銀行業務——2014年上半年，後者創造的利潤佔該集團總計123億美元稅前利潤的3%。匯豐私人銀行業務全球主管克里希納•帕特爾(Krishna Patel)於2012年12月辭職，歐洲、中東和非洲地區全球私人銀行業務主管亞歷山大•澤勒(Alexandre Zeller)於那一年的2月離職。匯豐已撤出了其位於日內瓦湖畔的富麗堂皇的辦公室，標誌着其瑞士業務經歷了多麼深層的調整。

Last year, it sold $12.5bn of Swiss private banking assets to Liechtenstein’s LGT Group, cutting its total assets by 15 per cent. In recent months, rival bankers have started to speculate that Mr Gulliver will once again look for a full exit.

去年，匯豐將125億美元的瑞士私人銀行資產出售給了列支敦士登的LGT Group，相當於這塊業務之前資產的15%。近幾個月，對手公司的銀行家開始猜測，歐智華將再次尋求全盤退出這塊業務。