Swiss bank boss 'regrets' tax ploy

26 February 2014 Last updated at 15:01

Credit Suisse boss tells Senate that he 'regrets' tax ploy

Brady Dougan, Chief Executive of Credit Suisse is testifying before a US Senate Committee

The boss of Swiss bank Credit Suisse has said he "deeply regrets" that some of its bankers violated US tax laws.

But Chief Executive Brady Dougan said in a statement to a US Senate committee that there was only "scattered evidence" of improper conduct.

A US Senate report alleged the bank had helped US clients hide billions of dollars from the US taxman.

Mr Dougan admitted some private bankers had helped Americans hide income and assets to illegally avoid US tax.

Deep regret

He said:"We deeply regret that - despite the industry-leading compliance measures we have put in place - before 2009, some Credit Suisse private bankers appear to have violated U.S. law,"

"The evidence showed that some Swiss-based private bankers went to great lengths to disguise their bad conduct from Credit Suisse executive management."

The report said that in 2006, Credit Suisse held 22,000 accounts from U.S. customers worth 12bn Swiss francs ($13.5bn; £8.1bn).

Mr Dougan disputed some of the findings of the report, saying the subcommittee wrongly assumed every U.S. client account held in Switzerland was hidden from the U.S. government.

He said the bank was fighting lawsuits in Switzerland from clients trying to prevent it from giving information to the US authorities.

"These are not the actions of an institution flouting U.S. law enforcement or hiding behind Swiss law," he said.