从汇丰受罚能不能获得启迪？

汇丰银行洗钱的道道

 

汇丰银行因为洗钱被罚19亿美元，成就了又一个历史性的“里程碑”。

出于好奇：汇丰银行应该是没有太大的积极性搞洗钱活动的，再者，洗钱，总得有钱可洗不是，汇丰哪里来那么多值得洗的钱？

细看才知道，原来，银行是为了业务量的扩张，而“不小心”做了在美国司法部看来不应该做的事情：将美国的敌对分子的钱，在自己的金融网络里面转来转去，这里面的钱既有来自毒枭的，也有来自敌对国家或者政治势力的。

即使是像汇丰这样如此小心翼翼经营的银行，也会栽这么大的跟头，那么，在国内习惯了胆大包天做事太久的中国的银行和金融机构，如果要在美国经营的话，日子会是什么样的？结果会不会就是几年之后的破产和让中国的纳税人为此买单呢？

应该是不难想象得到吧。

如果不走出来，或者只是假惺惺的走出来，而实际上走不了什么实际上的大事情，那么，意在走向世界的中国企业，意在世界上打下“强大”想象的中国这个国家，假若你的金融机构都没有办法在海外大玩一把，你又真的能走多远呢？

汇丰的事件，看来，是值得中国的官僚们好好思索一番的。

 

 

HSBC will pay $1.9 billion for money laundering

Kevin McCoy, USA TODAY

8:51AM EST December 11. 2012 - WASHINGTON — British banking giant HSBC said Tuesday that it will pay a record $1.9 billion to settle allegations resulting from a broad international money-laundering investigation by U.S. federal and state authorities.

The settlement, set to be announced later Tuesday by investigators, would end probes focused on accusations that HSBC's U.S. arm transferred billions of dollars through its U.S. arm for Mexican drug cartels, Iran, which is under international financial sanctions, and others.

The settlement, formally known as a deferred prosecution agreement, means HSBC can avoid criminal money laundering and other charges – which could have been a financial death sentence for the bank.

A July report and hearing by the Senate permanent subcommittee in the U.S. alleged foreign HSBC banks "actively circumvented" safeguards at the bank's U.S. arm designed to block transactions involving alleged terrorism, drug trafficking and rogue nations.

One example highlighted in the Senate report showed that two HSBC affiliates routed nearly 25,000 Iran-linked transactions involving $19.4 billion through the bank's U.S. arm over a seven-year period. The transactions allegedly violated U.S. and British law.

"We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again," said HSBC Group Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver in a statement released early Tuesday.

Adding that the bank had cooperated with U.S. investigators over the last two years, Gulliver said "we have been taking concrete steps to put right what went wrong."

He said the deferred prosecution agreement notes that in recent years the bank has increased spending and staffing on money-laundering prevention procedures and beefed up its know-your-customer efforts.

HSBC spent over $290 million to remediate its money-laundering prevention policies, terminated 109 banking correspondent relationships considered potential money laundering risks and required a number of senior bank officers return previously paid bonuses, the statement said.

Under the deferred prosecution agreement, the bank said an independent monitor will evaluate HSBC's progress in fully implementing new procedures and ending relationships considered at risk for money laundering.

The agreement covers an investigation that involved the Department of Justice, the Manhattan District Attorney in New York, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control and its financial crimes enforcement unit, and the Comptroller of the Currency.

A U.S. law enforcement official said Monday that HSBC will forfeit $1.25 billion and pay $655 million in civil penalties. The forfeiture of $1.3 billion is a record amount involving a bank. Under the deferred prosecution agreement, HSBC will be accused of violating the Bank Secrecy Act and the Trading With the Enemy Act.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized to speak about the matter on the record.

Under the deferred prosecution agreement, the bank won't be prosecuted if it meets certain conditions, including stronger internal controls to prevent money laundering. Such agreements have been used often by Justice to settle allegations of foreign bribery charges against large corporations.

In regard to HSBC and Mexico, a U.S. Senate investigative committee reported that in 2007 and 2008, HSBC Mexico sent about $7 billion in chase to the United States. The committee report said that such a large an amount of cash strongly suggested they were illegal drug proceeds.

Money laundering by banks has become a priority target for U.S. law enforcement.

In another case Monday, British bank Standard Chartered, accused of scheming with the Iranian government to launder billions of dollars, signed an agreement with New York regulators to pay $340 million to settle money laundering charges.

Since 2009, foreign banks with U.S. arms, including Credit Suisse, Barclays and Lloyds, have made payments to settle allegations they moved money for people or companies that were a U.S. sanctions list. Because these banks had U.S. subsidiaries, they are subject to U.S. laws and regulations.

Last summer, the Senate investigation concluded that HSBC's lax controls exposed it to the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing.

HSBC bank affiliates also skirted U.S. government bans against financial transactions with Iran and other countries, according to the report from the Senate permanent subcommittee on Investigations. And HSBC's U.S. division provided money and banking services to some banks in Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh reported to have helped fund al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, the report said.

The report also blamed U.S. regulators: It said they failed to take action even though they had knowledge that HSBC's money- laundering prevention system was inadequate.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the subcommittee chairman, cited instances in which regulatory sanctions required HSBC to fix deficiencies. The bank allegedly didn't follow through, the subcommittee's report said.

Levin also said the Comptroller of the Currency, the U.S. agency that oversees the biggest banks, tolerated HSBC's weak controls against money laundering for years and that agency superiors overruled examiners who raised concerns about the situation.

In his statement Tuesday, HSBC's Gulliver said: "The HSBC of today is a fundamentally different organization from the one that made those mistakes. Over the last two years, under new senior leadership, we have been taking concrete steps to put right what went wrong and to participate actively with government authorities in bringing to light and addressing these matters."

HSBC announced Monday that Robert Werner, a former head of the Treasury Department agencies responsible for sanctions against terrorist financing and money laundering, will begin a new role at HSBC as head of financial crime compliance and become the bank's money-laundering reporting officer. Werner has been head of global standards assurance since August.

In January, HSBC hired Stuart Levey, a former Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, as its chief legal officer. And a former policy adviser in the Obama administration, Preeta Bansal, in October became HSBC's global general counsel for litigation and regulatory affairs.