Banking group’s chief executive to appear before Treasury select committee after it emerges he had an account in Switzerland routed through Panama

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

MPs have turned up the heat on HSBC by summoning its boss, Stuart Gulliver, at the last minute to give evidence alongside the group’s chairman.

Revelations that Gulliver, brought in as a reforming chief executive of Britain’s biggest bank, had a bank account in Switzerland that was routed through Panama prompted the Treasury select committee to call him in to give evidence.

Revealed: Swiss account secret of HSBC chief Stuart Gulliver Read more

Two hours are now scheduled on Wednesday for the MPs to put their questions to the banking bosses, rather than the 45 minutes that had initially been timetabled for the bank’s chairman, Douglas Flint.

The two HSBC executives will give evidence to the committee prior to Lin Homer, chief executive of HM Revenue & Customs. She faces questions about why only one person has been prosecuted for avoiding taxes.

On Monday while presenting HSBC’s latest results, Gulliver and Flint said they were humbled and shamed by the tax revelations.

The Treasury select committee called the hearing after the Guardian and other publications published leaked details of 100,000 bank accounts held by HSBC’s Swiss operation that showed how the bank had helped clients avoid tax and move bricks of cash out of the country.

When Gulliver presented the bank’s results on Monday he explained that he had a Swiss bank account to hide his bonuses from colleagues in Hong Kong. The Swiss operation in turn routed his payments through Panama to hide them from other colleagues locally.

He also explained why he was non-domiciled in the UK despite being born in the country. “I would expect to die abroad, which is the test around domiciliary,” said Gulliver, who has spent his career at HSBC after leaving for Hong Kong in 1990.

HSBC boss says bank 'shamed' by Swiss tax avoidance Read more

He returned to the UK only for a posting with the bank and was promoted to chief executive in 2011, when Flint also moved from finance director to chairman.

Gulliver has also apologised in writing in adverts in some newspapers over the Swiss revelations.

HSBC will he hoping that MPs, led by Andrew Tyrie, focus on the attempts by Gulliver to clean up the banking group since becoming chief executive. He has sold off 77 businesses and rid the bank of a complex structure of 88 country heads and implemented a reorganisation along business lines.

Before Gulliver was called to give evidence, Labour MP John Mann tweeted: “Treasury Committee allocating just 45 minutes to question HSBC on Wednesday. I presume that is for my questions”.