The private banking arm of British bank HSBC in Geneva has filed a criminal complaint against a former employee who allegedly stole client data in 2006 and 2007.

The private banking arm of British bank HSBC in Geneva has filed a criminal complaint against a former employee who allegedly stole client data in 2006 and 2007.

The information is said to have been passed on by the information technology employee to French authorities.

In a statement on Wednesday, HSBC said the theft was reported to the company after police surveillance in 2008, adding that “to the best of the bank’s knowledge, the number of names potentially involved was fewer than ten”.

Earlier, the French daily Le Parisien reported that the employee had stolen thousands of secret bank accounts and handed them over to French tax-fraud investigators.

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