Compliance
Sarasin Adds Detail To Case Of Fired Employee Who Leaked Hildebrand Data
Sarasin, the private bank which last week announced it had fired an employee who illegally disclosed data about Swiss National Bank head Philipp Hildebrand, has provided further information on a case that has rocked the Swiss financial system.
A lone employee in Sarasin’s IT support department, who passed on the data to a third party, had no contact with Hildebrand and the SNB president’s personal client advisor and was “never at any time put under pressure by Mr Hildebrand”, Sarasin said in a statement issued on Friday.
The data was stolen by taking screen shots of the Hildebrand family’s portfolio and of currency transactions, it said.
Last week, Hildebrand said he will stay in the job and did not abuse his position after his wife traded two currencies a few weeks before the SNB moved to cap the Swiss franc versus the euro. “I acted not only according to the rules, but also in an appropriate manner,” he was quoted by media reports as saying at a press conference in Zurich last Thursday. His wife, Kashya Hildebrand, spent SFr400,000 to buy $504,000 on 15 August, three weeks before the SNB capped the currency at €1.20.
The affair has raised, yet again, question marks about the security of client information as held by Swiss banks, which operate under a fierce law making it a criminal offence for bankers to disclose client details. Last year, banks such as Julius Baer, Credit Suisse and HSBC’s Swiss private bank were hit by stories about losses of client data.
Sarasin, in its statement, said it “has no reason to believe that any other employee violated bank-client confidentiality in connection with the client relationship with the Hildebrand family.”
Sarasin last week filed a charge with the Zurich Public Prosecutor’s Office against the employee for violating bank client confidentiality and commercial secrecy, and against third parties for inducement to violate bank client confidentiality and for exploiting the violation of commercial secrecy.
“Bank Sarasin reserves the right to take further legal action. In particular it could make a civil claim for damages and/or make a complaint to the Swiss Press Council about erroneous reporting relating to Bank Sarasin in a Swiss weekly newspaper,” it said.
