By Steve Slater and Joshua Franklin and Aruna Viswanatha LONDON / ZURICH / WASHINGTON (Reuters) – HSBC Holdings Plc faces an investigation by US authorities and over by British lawmakers after admitting his private bank failures Swiss that would have allowed some clients evade taxes. Prosecutors have increased efforts to determine whether the second largest bank in the world helped Americans evade taxes after media reports said that the bank had helped wealthy clients hide millions of dollars in assets. The US authorities are also investigating whether HSBC manipulated exchange rates and an official said Monday that the investigation could lead to the Justice Department review a deferred prosecution agreement with the bank achieved in 2012. The agreement was part of a pact of 1,900 million HSBC allowed to avoid criminal charges after it was discovered that helped move hundreds of millions of dollars from drug trafficking to the US financial system. “It is quite possible that (the agreement) can be reopened as a result of the bank’s activities in one or both fronts for tax evasion or currency manipulation,” said the US official, who requested anonymity because the investigations are in progress. British lawmakers say they plan to open an investigation into the bank after it came under public scrutiny and regulators for their past practices in Switzerland. HSBC shares fell 2 percent on Tuesday at 0845 GMT, with worse than the European banking index performance. On Monday lost 1.6 percent after media reports on the activities of its Swiss operation based on customer data from 2006 and 2007. Continued …
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