ZURICH: Switzerland’s money laundering office received a record number of suspicious activity reports last year, in part due to increased vigilance from Swiss banks.

The Alpine nation has faced intense international pressure over bank secrecy, tax evasion and money laundering, most recently highlighted by allegations that the Swiss arm of HSBC had helped clients to dodge taxes.

The Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS) said on Tuesday that it received 1,753 reports of suspicious activity in 2014, up 24 per cent on 2013 and the highest level since MROS was formed in 1998.

“One explanation for the rather surprisingly high level of reporting may be the increased reporting awareness of financial intermediaries, especially from the banking sector,” MROS said in its annual report.

The total asset value of the activity in the reports topped 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.13bn), with more than 85pc of the reports coming from the banking sector.

MROS analyses reports on suspicious activity related to money laundering and forwards them to Swiss law enforcement agencies where necessary.

The office forwarded 72pc of reports to prosecution authorities last year, 7pc less than in 2013.

Leaked information detailing how HSBC’s Swiss private bank allegedly helped wealthy clients to evade taxes has dragged Switzerland’s chequered history of tax compliance and money laundering back into the public spotlight.

Swiss regulator FINMA had already investigated and criticised the bank in 2010-11 for its poor internal controls and violations of money laundering guidelines.

Geneva’s public prosecutor searched HSBC’s lakeside Swiss office in February after opening a criminal inquiry into allegations of aggravated money laundering.

UBS and Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s two biggest banks, have also paid heavy penalties to settle tax evasion cases in the United States in recent years.

Switzerland is among a host of countries who have committed to a multilateral sharing of tax information in an agreement developed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2015

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