Over 30,000 account records have been evaluated by an international network of journalists.
(Photo: dpa)
Zurich The publication of customer lists by Credit Suisse, on which autocrats and criminals are said to be found, has called the Swiss financial regulator Finma into action. A spokesman for the authority in Bern said on request: “We can confirm that we are in contact with the bank in this context.” They do not comment on individual media reports. “Compliance with money laundering regulations has been a focus of our supervisory activities for years,” emphasized the Finma spokesman.
On Sunday evening, a research group led by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the New York Times and the Guardian published reports based on data from tens of thousands of Credit Suisse customers. Accordingly, the second largest Swiss bank has done business with despots, suspected criminals, for decades. According to media reports, criminals could have opened accounts or kept accounts even “if the bank could have known long ago that they were dealing with criminals”.
Credit Suisse rejects the allegations. 90 percent of the accounts listed have already been closed. “We will continue to analyze the matter and, if necessary, take further steps,” the bank continued
In 2018, in a series of measures, Finma denounced extensive misconduct by Credit Suisse in the area of money laundering and in transactions with so-called politically exposed persons (PEP). For years, she had been investigating the bank’s business relationships with managers at the state-owned Venezuelan oil company PDSVA. Credit Suisse is said to have helped smuggle petrodollars out of the country.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
The financial supervisory authority also investigated dubious transactions with the Brazilian oil company Petrobras and Fifa. In all three cases, the bank violated regulatory obligations to combat money laundering, according to the supervisory authority. She provided the bank with a supervisor who regularly informed the authority about the progress made in preventing money laundering. According to financial circles, the supervisory authority is now interested in whether the data set contains cases that suggest deficiencies in money laundering prevention even after 2018.
The focus is also on business relationships with politicians and officials in countries prone to corruption. Transactions involving these so-called PEPs must be checked separately. In addition, a manager from the management level of the bank must reconfirm each year whether a risky business relationship with a public official should continue.
Here, too, the bank made deficits for years, as Finma stated in a 2018 report: “The PEP business relationship with increased risks was recorded as such too late and treated accordingly,” the supervisors concluded. “The clarifications and the corresponding documentation on the business relationship were also inadequate.” Once again, the revelations of the research collective should be an opportunity to check whether deficiencies in dealing with risky officials persisted beyond the period of the internal investigation.
The data leak itself should also become an issue: the security of customer data is also an important concern of the banking supervisory authority, according to financial circles. The releases could also keep law enforcement busy. Switzerland has strict rules for handling bank data.
Anyone who makes bank data accessible to third parties must fear imprisonment. The evaluation of such data by journalists is also a punishable offense in Switzerland, even if there is a high level of public interest, for example because politicians are involved in dubious transactions.
More: Credit Suisse apparently had autocrats and criminals as clients.