I have written, some would say often, on the Rev Lord Stephen Green. He's the Tory Trade Minister who is also a Church of England vicar and is former chairman and CEO of HSBC from 2003 to 2010. It does, however, look like I have been to kind to him. The FT's Alphavillle email says this moring of HSBC during his tenure:
US Senate investigators came down hard on HSBC in a report into the bank's involvement in illicit money flows. HSBC ignored internal warnings, flouted rules related to US sanction enforcement and waved anti-money laundering requirements for wealthy clients, the report says. A ”pervasively polluted” culture allowed the bank to faciliate clients involved in money laundering.
Now the Rev could of course seek to deny all knowledge of this. But he was the boss. He also happened to be chair of HSBC's Swiss private bank during this time.
And guess what? Now the government has signed a tax deal with Switzerland that supports the right of Swiss banks to sell corrupt bank secrecy with impunity to British tax payers - and what's more actually encourages it by offering a special low tax rate to UK tax payers who will move their funds to Switzerland in the future.
You couldn't make it up, could you?
It is, though, another example of the capture of the state for private gain. Or of corruption, as I'd prefer to call it.
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I was a little confused then Richard, as Stephen Green is also the name of the boss of Christian Voice, although both are as nutty in their views on the market and religion respectively.
So when I was referring to HSBC as “Shanghai Lil’s” it seems that I was closely to reality than I thought I was. What else is going to come crawling out of the woodwork? Did you see John Redwood today on Network Rail being long on derivatives? Can’t wait for the cancellations due to derivatives on the line.
Every NEW REVELATION is calling him to account, keep it up ,no doubt HSBC is abouit to be exposed for its own role in libor fixing.You’ve got an open goal.
“and what’s more actually encourages it by offering a special low tax rate to UK tax payers who will move their funds to Switzerland in the future”
For what it’s worth, I work in this industry and we aren’t advising people to do this. High net worth individuals are not moving their assets to Switzerland en masse – the difference in tax is so small that it’s simply not worth the extra costs and hassle.
You do know that makes me presume you are doing just that?
You are well within your rights to call me a liar if you like – it’s your blog after all and I’m only a guest!
I’m not sure why you think I’m lying since you know absolutely nothing about me other than (presumably) the firm I work for since I guess with a little computer magic you could drag that from my IP address or email. Do you think every accountant who advises on offshore tax planning is a liar and a criminal?
If so then I suppose there’s no point in me posting here at all, since every time I disagree with you (however polite or conciliatory I try to be) you will accuse me of deceit!
But I say it again for what it’s worth – the difference in rates is very small. There may be some advisers who are telling people to invest via Switzerland and put up with the inflexibility and cost of these offshore structures for such a small difference in tax, but we certainly don’t think it’s worth it and I’ve not seen anyone in industry conferences argue that it is.
We’ve heard the protestations too often to believe them is my point