Summary

  • HSBC bosses answer questions over Swiss tax scandal

  • HSBC boss 'not accountable' for individuals' actions

  • Argentina demands $3.5bn from HSBC

  1. Apple Watchpublished at 18:06 GMT 9 March 2015

    Tim CookImage source, Engadget

    And the last word from Business Live today: the Apple Watch will be able to show a Mickey Mouse face... Thanks to Engadget.com, external for the picture. We're back at 0600 tomorrow - thanks for reading today.

  2. Barclays boardpublished at 17:59 GMT 9 March 2015

    Following a call from the LAPFF pension fund for Sir John Sutherland to step down immediately as chairman of Barclays' remuneration committee, the bank said that Crawford Gillies would assume the role after the annual meeting on 23 April. Barclays rejected the claim that it had broken a promise about the timing of Sir John's departure.

  3. Apple launchpublished at 17:50 GMT 9 March 2015

    AppleImage source, Getty Images

    Meanwhile, in life outside Westminster, Tim Cook is on stage in San Francisco to launch the Apple Watch and a new range of Macintosh computers. Health apps will be a major feature of the new smartwatch - and Mr Cook stresses that Apple will not be able to see customer data.

  4. HSBC hearingpublished at 17:36 GMT 9 March 2015

    So that's it from the HSBC trio. The Public Accounts Committee had been due to hold another session today to hear from Edward Troup, second permanent secretary and tax assurance commissioner of HMRC, and Dave Hartnett, the former permanent secretary. However, Mr Hartnett was not able to attend and Mrs Hodge suggested that the session be postponed until both were able to attend.

  5. HSBC hearingpublished at 17:36 GMT 9 March 2015

    Tory MP Stephen Hammond goes in to bat for Rona Fairhead, and says that Mrs Hodge should have directed some of her comments towards Mr Meares, whom he describes as a "wholly unreliable witness".

  6. HSBC hearingpublished at 17:21 GMT 9 March 2015

    Mrs Hodge says Ms Fairhead was either "incredibly naive or totally incompetent" in her stewardship of HSBC, which gave the MP no confidence in her ability to oversee the BBC, in her role as the chair of the BBC Trust. "You should think about resigning" from the BBC role, Mrs Hodge says, or the government should think about sacking her if she did not go.

  7. HSBC hearingpublished at 17:13 GMT 9 March 2015

    Margaret Hodge

    Mrs Hodge gets increasingly wound up as she reads out a series of instances about action taken by HSBC's Swiss private bank staff in relation to reducing the tax burden for clients, which she labels "tax avoidance on an industrial scale". Mr Meares says he was not aware of these practices, which included "endless visits" by Swiss staff to Britain to get customers to sign documents. "I don't believe you didn't know Mr Meares," Mrs Hodge says.

  8. HSBC hearingpublished at 17:07 GMT 9 March 2015

    In relation to the information derived from the Herve Falciani data theft, Ms Fairhead says the bank was initially told it related to seven accounts. It was contacted by HMRC and "immediately got an independent review done" to ensure HSBC was not assisting tax evasion.

  9. HSBC hearingpublished at 17:01 GMT 9 March 2015

    Mr Gulliver says that the structure of HSBC had been "out of date and diluted by multiple acquisitions", but insists that the changes made in recent years have rectified those problems.

  10. HSBC hearingpublished at 16:57 GMT 9 March 2015

    MPs seem grumpiest with Ms Fairhead, who was chair of the board's risk committee. Mrs Hodge says HSBC's board appears to have been "completely seduced by structures".

  11. HSBC hearingpublished at 16:45 GMT 9 March 2015

    Margaret Hodge

    Mrs Hodge twists the knife again, telling the witnesses that HSBC appears to be "rich in bureaucracy and very, very short on common sense". She adds: "When things go wrong in the public sector on your watch you resign. No one has deigned to accept responsibility."

  12. HSBC hearingpublished at 16:43 GMT 9 March 2015

    When asked about the inconsistency between his personal tax affairs using a Panamanian shell company and the bank's overall actions, Mr Gulliver says: "I can see how you might see some inconsistency."

  13. HSBC hearingpublished at 16:42 GMT 9 March 2015

    Stuart Gulliver, HSBC chief executive

    Mr Gulliver is asked again about "hold mail" accounts. "Hold mail wasn't something for me to look at", he responds, but the issue struck him as high risk after he became group chief executive.

  14. HSBC hearingpublished at 16:38 GMT 9 March 2015

    Was HSBC different to other banks? Mr Meares says he thinks HSBC's practices in Switzerland were similar to other banks at the time.

  15. HSBC hearingpublished at 16:29 GMT 9 March 2015

    Mrs Hodge says she has never seen a non-executive director getting paid half a million pounds a year. Ms Fairhead explains she is paid £334,000 for her role as non-executive chairman of HSBC's US operations, as well as a director of HSBC Holdings - the parent company.

  16. Via Twitterpublished at 16:27 GMT 9 March 2015

    Kamal Ahmed
    BBC Business editor

    MPs on the PAC accuse HSBC of "complete managerial incompetence" over lack of knowledge of Swiss evasion

  17. HSBC hearingpublished at 16:24 GMT 9 March 2015

    Mr Meares said he did not know whether the Swiss executives were lying or did not know what was going on: "The issues didn't come up through the board - I don't know whether the individual executives knew whether anything wrong was going on."

  18. HSBC hearingpublished at 16:19 GMT 9 March 2015

    Rona Fairhead says: "As we acquired more businesses it became more complex and there were a huge number of standards on money laundering and tax that we were complying with. We got to the stage where a 100-year-old structure was no longer fit for purpose."

  19. HSBC hearingpublished at 16:14 GMT 9 March 2015

    Rona Fairhead, who is a director on the HSBC board, is asked why the bank's overall results for 2007 specifically mention Switzerland. She says the amalgamation of a series of private banks were responsible for the rise in profits from the Swiss private operations.

  20. HSBC hearingpublished at 16:12 GMT 9 March 2015

    Rona Fairhead

    Rona Fairhead, whose board responsibilities included overseeing risk, says "first and foremost" the people who were "most culpable" in the tax scandal are those people who evade taxes. Next, "frontline staff" who were breaching HSBC's policies were to blame. She also holds the management in Switzerland responsible for not putting in place the correct controls.