Senate Subcommittee to Report on HSBC Money Laundering (7/16/12)

NYT's DealBook (or DealB%k) reports that a Senate subcommittee is shining the light on HSBC, a known suspect for criminal conduct, this time for money laundering.  See Nathaniel Popper, Scathing Report Details Money Laundering at HSBC (NYT DealB%k 7/16/02), here.

Here are the opening paragraphs:

The global bank HSBC has been used by Mexican drug cartels looking to get cash back into the United States, by Saudi Arabian banks that needed access to dollars despite their terrorist ties, and by Iranians who wanted to circumvent United States sanctions. 

A 335-page report set to be released Tuesday levels these accusations and says that both bank executives and regulators at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ignored warning signs and failed to stop the illegal behavior at various times between 2001 and 2010.

The report is the product of a yearlong investigation by a United States Senate subcommittee, which points to HSBC as an indication of a broader problem of illegal money flowing through international financial institutions into the United States, and the failure of American bank regulators to catch the problems.

I will post more later after the report is actually available.
I do note that large banks are much in the news nowadays in various unflattering contexts.  JP Morgan Chase and Barclays included.  Now HSBC, again in another context.  And in the not too recent past UBS and even HSBC (redundant).



The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Media Report is here.  The report can be downloaded from that site.


The hearing agenda, with identities of witnesses and their written statements for download, is here.  (Actually, the hearing is going on during the morning of 7/17/12 and there is a live feed of the hearing at that site as well.)