The Swiss Leaks

The journalist collaboration behind the biggest leak in banking history; plus, a look at the slow journalism movement.


Journalists are not known for their generosity of spirit - for theirs is the urge to get the exclusive, to come up with that scoop. But this week was different.

On February 8, a news story broke online on multiple news outlets across the globe. It was a deal struck between journalists from 45 countries who agreed to publish their stories simultaneously – a story which has come to be known as the Swiss Leaks.

The process started six years ago when an employee-turned-whistleblower at the British bank HSBC handed over a trove of financial data to the authorities in France. That data reportedly showed that HSBC - the world's second biggest bank - helped thousands of its clients hide money in secret accounts held by its private bank in Switzerland. That data ended up with French newspaper Le Monde who then took it to the ICIJ - the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.