HSBC Accepts $313 Million Fine to Settle France Tax-Fraud Claims, Prosecutor Says

By Joshua Kirby

French authorities said lender HSBC agreed to pay a fine of nearly 268 million euros ($312.9 million) amid an investigation into accusations of tax fraud relating to dividend payments.

The case will be shelved with the payment of the fine, Pascal Prache, a French financial prosecutor, said in a release Thursday. HSBC didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The investigation related to accusations that HSBC's French arm between 2014 and 2019 engaged in trading schemes involving intra-group dividend arbitrage transactions to benefit from the exemption of taxes from such transactions, dealings the prosecutor's office said amounted to aggravated tax fraud.

The case isn't the first time HSBC has landed in hot water with the French tax authorities. In 2017, the bank's Swiss private-banking unit paid some 300 million euros to resolve charges that it helped clients avoid taxes in France.

Write to Joshua Kirby at [e-mail]; @joshualeokirby

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-08-26 0827ET