An investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the Guardian newspaper and the BBC’s Panorama programme revealed the scandal this week.
Now the UK Public Accounts Committee (PAC) plans to investigate and will require HSBC’s former head to give evidence, according to the BBC.
However at this stage it is reported HSBC will not face a criminal probe in the UK, unlike in other countries.
Authorities in the US, Belgium, France, Argentina and Switzerland are also looking into the revelations the bank helped wealthy citizens evade hundreds of millions of pounds worth of tax.
HSBC said it is “co-operating with relevant authorities”.
Panorama has seen accounts from 106,000 clients in 203 countries, leaked by whistleblower Herve Falciani in 2007.
The PAC’s chairman, Margaret Hodge, said late on Monday: “The Public Accounts Committee will be launching an urgent inquiry to which we will require HSBC to give evidence – and we will order them if necessary”.
The PAC has a routine meeting scheduled on Wednesday at which the head of HMRC, Lin Homer, will appear.
One of HSBC’s most senior figures, Stephen Green, who was made group chief executive in 2003 before going on to become the group executive chairman of the bank in 2006, was made a minister eight months after HMRC had been given the leaked documents from his bank. He served as a minister of trade and investment until 2013.
Now Lord Green refused to comment on the business of HSBC “as a matter of principle”.
But Hodge said: “Either he didn’t know and he was asleep at the wheel, or he did know and he was therefore involved in dodgy tax practices.
“Either way he was the man in charge and I think he has got really important questions to answer.”
