The files have been secured through global international collaboration of news agencies comprising The Guardian, the French daily Le Monde, BBC Panorama and the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The documents, covering the period between 2005 and 2007, are claimed to pertain to accounts that had over $100bn, according to ICIJ, which secured the files through Le Monde, a French newspaper.
The documents revealed that HSBC was allegedly engaged with its customers in a range of illegal behavior. These files also highlighted bank records of various celebrities.
The latest files obtained show that the Swiss banking arm allowed clients to withdraw huge chunks of cash routinely and had marketed plans to help them hide undeclared ‘black’ accounts from tax authorities.
International criminals, corrupt businessmen as well as some high-risk individuals were offered accounts by HSBC’s unit, reported The Guardian.
HSBC was quoted as saying by The Guardian in a statement: "We acknowledge and are accountable for past compliance and control failures."
The group in a statement said that the Swiss unit had not been fully merged into HSBC following its purchase in 1999 and this has resulted in ‘significantly lower’ standards of compliance.
According to HSBC, the number of accounts in its banking unit have declined in the year 2007 from 30,412 to 10,343 at 2014-end, Reuters reported.
With around 6,600 offices in 80 countries, HSBC boasts around 60 million customers and has territories across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America.
Image: 8 Canada Square, HSBC’s world headquarters in Canary Wharf, London. Photo: courtesy of Michael Pead/Wikipedia
