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Credit Suisse was plunged into a dirty money scandal on Monday after media outlets reported the Swiss bank had managed accounts for human rights abusers, fraudsters and businessmen who had been placed under sanctions.
One person leaked information on the accounts, which were held in decades ranging from the 1940s to 2010s, to Germanyโs Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The German daily then shared it with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and 46 other news organisations including the New York Times, Britainโs Guardian and Franceโs Le Monde.
The Panama Papers-style investigations were published on Sunday and come as Credit Suisse, which denies any wrongdoing, tries to shake off a series of risk-management scandals and a 1.6 billion Swiss franc ($1.75 billion) loss in 2021 that has pummelled its stock.
The New York Times said the leaked data covered more than 18,000 accounts collectively holding more than $100 billion.
The revelations also turned the spotlight on Switzerland only a little more than three years after it ditched, under U.S. pressure, a centuries-old culture of secrecy that had made the Alpine state a global no-questions-asked vault for the worldโs rich.
โFor CS, even if the allegations are unfounded, this raises questions about its business practices in wealth management and should tie up management having to spend time fighting fires instead of moving forward,โ RBC analysts said.
Shares in Credit Suisse, which fell by almost a quarter last year, were almost 3% lower by mid-afternoon.
โCredit Suisse strongly rejects the allegations and insinuations about the bankโs purported business practices,โ the bank said in a statement issued on Sunday night in response to the consortiumโs reports.
Switzerlandโs financial watchdog, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) which in 2018 rapped Credit Suisse for deficiencies in fighting money laundering, said it was in contact with the bank about the matter.
โCompliance with money laundering regulations has been a focus of our supervisory activities for years now,โ a FINMA spokesperson said.
After a call from members of the European Parliament to review Switzerlandโs banking practices and perhaps include the country in the EUโs dirty-money blacklist, the finance ministryโs State Secretariat for International Finance said in an emailed statement that the country meets โall international standards on the exchange of information in tax matters and on fighting against money laundering, terrorist financing and corruptionโ.
It added that Switzerland was now participating in the automatic exchange of information on account data with more than 100 countries.
Credit Suisse described the issue as โpredominantly historicalโ, adding that information had been taken out of context.
The bank said it had received numerous inquiries from the consortium in the past three weeks and reviewed many of the accounts.
โApproximately 90% of the reviewed accounts are today closed or were in the process of closure prior to receipt of the press inquiries, of which over 60% were closed before 2015,โ it said.
The bank said that it was satisfied with its checks on the remaining accounts.
โThe Swiss financial centre has no interest in money of dubious origin. It attaches the greatest importance to the maintenance of its reputation and integrity,โ the Swiss Bankers Association said.
REUTERS
