Guenther Dobrauz, head of legal and regulatory services of PwC in Zurich, said he expected to see investigations of a similar nature over the coming months at other institutions. He added: 'There are still a lot of legacy issues from historical business models that will increasingly come to the fore. I am expecting [a development in this area] every other day as cleaning up history usually takes a bit of time. I expect there are still quite a few of those skeletons around, but just because one thing pops up, I would not say the whole [system] is bad.' 

Aggravated money laundering

A prosecutor said of the HSBC raid: 'We are looking for everything and anything we can find — documents and files.' This raid relates to 'aggravated money laundering', according to the prosecutor. The raid follows on from allegations that the bank helped clients evade tax. 

Mexican drug cartels

David Bagley, London-based compliance head at HSBC from 2002, resigned in 2012 after tee bank was accused of money laundering in relations to Mexican drug cartels. He said at the time: 'Despite the best efforts and intentions of many dedicated professionals, HSBC has fallen short of our own expectations and the expectations of our regulators.' Sources: Financial Times and Guardian