HSBC's chief executive, Stuart Gulliver has been drawn into the bank's tax evasion scandal - it has been revealed that he used a Panamanian shell company to funnel bonus payments into a Swiss account - but he has been accused of no wrongdoing.

The bank confirmed yesterday that he used a Swiss bank account to hold bonus payments - the account was opened in 1998 when he was working in Hong Kong.

The Guardian reported that close to £5m was held in the account.

Mr Gulliver has stated that he "never paid less than the marginal UK tax rate" on any of his HSBC earnings.

He claims that he was filtering his money into a Swiss account because he didn't want his colleagues to know how much he was earning.

According to Bloomberg it was possible for traders in HSBC's Hong Kong office to access each other's bank accounts.

The HSBC boss says that he and his colleagues opened Swiss accounts to prevent one another from seeing the size of their bonuses - and that channeling the money through a Panamanian shell company provided further privacy.

He explains: "Being in Switzerland protects me from the Hong Kong staff. Being in Panama protects me from the Swiss staff," adding, "There is nothing more complicated than that."

Yesterday HSBC reported a 17 percent drop in profits after what it described as a "challenging year" - the bank made £12.2bn (€16.6m) in 2014.