LONDON: UK government insisted that ministers did not know the full facts about the HSBC tax scandal until this week, in a collective closing of ranks in Parliament and in British financial services over the affair.
“No government minister had any knowledge that HSBC may have been involved in wrongdoing in regard to its Swiss banking arm prior to the reports of the last couple of days,” a spokesman for UK prime minister David Cameron said.
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. The Downing Street spokesman said this assertion applied to all ministers, including Lord Green, who served as trade minister in the coalition from 2011 to 2013.
Lord Green was chief executive and chairman of HSBC from 2003 to 2010, which includes the period when its Swiss private bank allegedly colluded with clients to conceal “black” accounts from tax authorities. Lord Green has declined to comment.
