The PAC continued its inquiry over the role of HSBC’s private Swiss bank in facilitating tax avoidance and evasion with a heated two-hour hearing on Monday 9 March. Stuart Gulliver, HSBC chief executive, said that the adverse publicity had caused ‘reputational damage’, but said he ‘would like to finish the job he started’. Chris Meares, ex-head of HSBC’s private banking division, admitted responsibility for ‘control failings’, but not for ‘the individual actions of wrongdoers’. The PAC also heard from Rona Fairhead, head of the BBC Trust and a non-executive director of HSBC since 2004, whom Margaret Hodge accused of being ‘incredibly naive or totally incompetent’. The PAC did not have time to hear from Edward Troup, HMRC’s tax assurance commissioner, and he will be called at a later date.
The PAC continued its inquiry over the role of HSBC’s private Swiss bank in facilitating tax avoidance and evasion with a heated two-hour hearing on Monday 9 March. Stuart Gulliver, HSBC chief executive, said that the adverse publicity had caused ‘reputational damage’, but said he ‘would like to finish the job he started’. Chris Meares, ex-head of HSBC’s private banking division, admitted responsibility for ‘control failings’, but not for ‘the individual actions of wrongdoers’. The PAC also heard from Rona Fairhead, head of the BBC Trust and a non-executive director of HSBC since 2004, whom Margaret Hodge accused of being ‘incredibly naive or totally incompetent’. The PAC did not have time to hear from Edward Troup, HMRC’s tax assurance commissioner, and he will be called at a later date.
