SCB celebrates 10 years of Saadiq

KARACHI:Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), the country’s largest and longest serving international bank, celebrated 10 years of Saadiq in Pakistan on Friday.

Saadiq, which means ‘truthful’, is Standard Chartered’s global Islamic banking brand. The bank was the first international bank in Pakistan to get an Islamic banking licence in 2004.

At a press briefing SCB Chief Executive Officer Shazad Dada thanked the State Bank of Pakistan and the government for creating a conducive environment for the growth of Islamic banking in the country.

Argentina charges HSBC with aiding tax evasion

BUENOS AIRES: Argentina’s tax agency charged HSBC bank Thursday with helping more than 4,000 Argentines evade taxes by placing their money in secret Swiss accounts.

The head of the country’s AFIP tax agency, Ricardo Echegaray, said Argentine citizens evaded about $3 billion in taxes that were handled by intermediaries through a network of offshore accounts.

Echegaray alleged that some of those accounts in Geneva are owned by HSBC Argentina’s president and other bank executives. He did not say if the bank’s operations had been suspended in Argentina.

“There’s no doubt that the AFIP will keep cracking down on tax havens because our objective is to collect taxes and to avoid harming those who have less,” he said.

AFIP said it got its information from France, where HSBC was placed under formal investigation last week for possibly aiding tax evasion. The banking company has also been charged in Belgium with organised fiscal fraud.

AFIP charged the local branch of HSBC and its executives in an Argentine federal court.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2014