Bank fires employee over leak of data

An exclusive Swiss private bank said Tuesday it fired an employee who leaked confidential client information linking the wife of the Swiss National Bank president to sensitive currency deals.Basel-based Bank Sarasin said the unnamed employee, who worked in IT support, had admitted passing the data to a lawyer who then arranged a meeting with a leading figure in the nationalist Swiss Peoples Party.Bank Sarasin is extremely regretful about this incident and has apologized to the client for the considerable unpleasantness caused by the infringement of bank client confidentiality, the bank said in a statement.The leaked data has caused a political furor in Switzerland, after it reportedly showed how the wife of SNB President Philipp Hildebrand profited from the central banks decision last year to depress the value of the Swiss franc.The SNB has said rumors of wrongdoing by Hildebrand are unfounded and its rules against insider trading werent breached.Citing an unnamed informant, Zurich daily Blick reported Tuesday that Hildebrands wife Kashya had bought more than half a million U.S. dollars on Aug. 15, before selling them again Oct. 12 at a profit of 61,000 francs ($65,000). The figures are similar to those reported by the respected Neue Zuercher Zeitung paper.Between those dates, on Sept. 6, the Swiss National Bank set the minimum exchange rate of the euro at 1.20 francs a move that caused the value of the franc to instantly drop about 8 percent against other major currencies including the dollar.The Swiss National Bank confirmed that Kashya Hildebrand, a former currency trader who now runs an art gallery in Zurich, bought an unspecified amount of U.S. dollars for herself and her daughter Aug. 15. The central bank declined to say whether she sold them for a profit, but declared that the banks board concluded Dec. 22 there had been no inappropriate transactions nor any abuse of privileged information.An SNB spokeswoman declined Tuesday to provide a copy of the rules governing personal deals by senior directors of the bank. These are internal regulations that arent public, Silvia Oppliger said.