Report: HSBC allowed money laundering that likely funded terror, drugs

"A "pervasively polluted" culture at HSBC allowed the bank to act as financier to clients moving shadowy funds from the world's most dangerous and secretive corners, including Mexico, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria, according to a scathing U.S. Senate report issued on Monday.

The report [link to PDF here] which comes ahead of a Senate hearing on Tuesday, said large amounts of Mexican drug money was likely to have passed through the bank.

HSBC's U.S. division provided money and banking services to some banks in Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh believed to have helped fund al-Qaida and other terrorist groups, according to an Al-Jazeera story on the report.

While the big British bank's problems have been known for nearly a decade, the Senate probe detailed just how sweeping the problems have been, both at the bank and at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a top U.S. bank regulator which the report said failed to properly monitor HSBC..............

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Neil,
You don't have to read all 340 pages of the .pdf report. The Executive Summary is enough. In particular, page 4 for references to HSBC Mexico, page 10 & 11 for Findings of Fact and Recommendations.

Both political parties appoint industry insiders to Sec. and other high ranking posts because of "Knowledge of the Industry" and are then horrified when the insider double dealings take place. Regulators go through the revolving door to become industry leaders or to lobby the buddies they used to work with.

I haven't a clue on how to stop these practices. BUT it's needed.

Ron

I believe it was Wachovia bank who plead guilty quietly and paid a fine for money laundering for terrorists and cartels in the past year as well.

Wachovia, Bank of America, now HSBC and probably numerous others operating strictly on greed! Just more examples of the failed policies of the War on Drugs. The US cannot get things under control right here at home but we spend money having our military is targeting drugs in Europe:
"From Cold Warriors to targeting trafficking: US military shifts focus in Europe"

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/17/12784623-from-cold-warriors-to-targeting-trafficking-us-military-shifts-focus-in-europe?lite

Again, the question of effective regulation of greed.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-17/roll-call-of-unscrupulous-bankers-is-unacceptably-long.html?cmpid=BVrelated

I am finding that Bloomberg is reporting news pretty straight.

Ron

As a followup, from EL UNIVERSAL:

The United States has set up an Anti-Money Laundering Unit in Mexico City:

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?act=url&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/859864.html&usg=ALkJrhjq6dRl3xqTWzwQUS4056Aauz9Wyw

Again and again. Is there no end to the BS the financial (Wall Street) industry perpetrates on us?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-19/hsbc-reminds-us-why-anger-at-bankers-is-the-norm.html

Ron