Credit Suisse has confirmed it is the subject of an international tax investigation.
It has said it is co-operating with authorities after its offices in the UK, France and the Netherlands were contacted by local authorities.
The issue concerns “client tax matters” but it has not commented further on what this consists of.
On Friday (31 March) HM Revenue & Customs announced it had launched an investigation into an unnamed “global financial institution” for suspected tax evasion and money laundering.
It said the investigation is being carried out in partnership with authorities in the Netherlands, Australia, Germany and France.
They are also investigation some of the institution’s employees.
Meanwhile the Dutch authorities have said they have seized bank accounts, luxury cars, paintings and a gold ingot as part of an “internationally coordinated day of action” involving a Swiss bank which it has not named.
In a statement HMRC said: “The first phase of the investigation, which will see further, targeted, activity over the coming weeks, is focused on senior employees from within the institution, along with a number of its customers.
“The international reach of this investigation sends a clear message that there is no hiding place for those seeking to evade tax.
“Promoters and facilitators of tax evasion schemes, and their customers, need to wake up to reality and accept that attempting to hide wealth overseas, or within institutions, doesn’t work and doesn’t place them out of our reach.”
HMRC said that since this was an ongoing investigation it couldn’t provide any more detail at this time.
Alongside this new investigation HMRC is currently investigating more than 1,100 cases of offshore evasion around the world, and have brought in more than £2.7bn from offshore tax evaders since 2010.
damian.fantato@ft.com
