The bank found itself embroiled in scandal after it was accused of helping clients dodge millions in tax by moving money into its private bank in Switzerland.

According to a report in the Financial Times, Swiss police began to search the Geneva offices on Wednesday morning in order to look for “everything and anything” they could find.

In a statement to the FT, a spokesperson said the investigation would affect individuals who are suspected of having committed or participated in money laundering.

On Tuesday the Daily Telegraph was accused of committing “a fraud” on its reader by former chief political commentator Peter Oborne.

Oborne resigned from the newspaper claiming that it had had failed to give prominent coverage of the HSBC story because there was “a great deal of evidence” that the distinction between advertising and editorial had “collapsed”.

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In an open letter on OpenDemocracy.net Oborne said: “The coverage of HSBC in Britain’s Telegraph is a fraud on its readers.”