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ZURICH, Feb 28 (Reuters) - HSBC, in the spotlightafter details emerged about how its Swiss unit allegedly helpedclients dodge taxes, isn't the troublemaker it is currentlydepicted as, the head of a rival private bank was quoted sayingon Saturday.
"HSBC has been described as the troublemaker in class, andit is not," Carlos Esteve, founder and CEO of Geneva-basedHeritage, said in an interview with Swiss daily Le Temps. "HSBCwas among the first to take steps to regularize its clients.Other institutions have been far slower."
The comments are noteworthy because the unspoken rule amongSwiss private bankers is to avoid directly commenting on rivals,a rare exception being three years ago when UBS headSergio Ermotti suggested Zurich's main banking thoroughfare,Bahnhofstrasse, was full of banks which took untaxed money, asdid UBS.
Ermotti was criticized by other bankers at the time forspeaking out.
Founded in 1986, Banque Heritage is part of a programmebrokered by the Swiss government for Swiss banks to come cleanon their untaxed American clients, paying fines and cooperatingwith authorities in order to avoid prosecution.
Esteve said Heritage hoped to conclude the programme bymid-year, but didn't say how much the bank expected to pay.
With roughly 6 billion Swiss francs ($6.3 billion) inassets, Heritage is one of a host of small private banksfighting to survive. Some experts predict the sector will shrinkby about a third in coming years, squeezed by the regulatoryclampdown and more recently by the strong Swiss franc.
But Esteve has plans for Heritage including doubling itsassets under management to up to 14 billion francs. "Even if itsounds ambitious, it is probably what is needed today, given theconstraints that have been imposed on our business," he said.($1 = 0.9530 Swiss francs) (Reporting by Katharina Bart; Editing by David Holmes)
