A Swiss court has convicted a former HSBC worker of economic espionage and sentenced him to five years in jail.
Herve Falciani was on trial for leaking bank data that led to tax evasion probes worldwide against prominent clients with accounts in Switzerland.
HSBC, which argued that he had illegally downloaded details from clients and accounts, welcomed the decision against Falciani, who was an IT worker at HSBC Private Bank (Suisse).
"HSBC has always maintained that Falciani systematically stole clients' information in order to sell it for his own personal financial gain,'' HSBC said in a statement.