April 7 2016
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has given 20 banks a deadline of 15 April to check if they have links to Mossack Fonseca, the firm at the centre of the Panama Papers scandal.Papers leaked from the law firm detailed how the world’s rich and powerful used it to shield money from taxation in their home countries.
The FCA said it had written to the firms earlier this week. Banking giants, including HSBC, deny they help clients to avoid tax.
HSBC, Credit Suisse and the Royal Bank of Scotland-owned Coutts Trustees all feature in the leaked Panama Papers. The revelations in the papers are based on more than 11 million documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca.