Every fine. Every settlement. Every scandal.

A$35m

Australia: A$35m penalty for “widespread and systemic” scam-protection failures

HSBC Bank Australia admitted it took an average of 144 days to investigate customers’ scam reports. A court called the failures widespread and systemic.

HK$4.2m

Hong Kong regulator fines HSBC over 4,200 flawed research reports

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission found HSBC failed to disclose, or wrongly disclosed, its investment-banking ties in research reports from 2013 to 2021.

€31.7m

EU cartel fine over euro interest-rate derivatives, upheld in 2024

The European Commission found HSBC colluded with JPMorgan and Crédit Agricole in euro interest-rate derivatives. After an eight-year legal fight, the EU General Court upheld a €31.7m fine.

Swiss regulator finds HSBC private bank seriously breached money-laundering rules

FINMA found HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) failed to check the source of assets for two politically exposed persons and did not report suspicions for a long period.

£6.28m fine + £185m redress

FCA fines HSBC for unfair treatment of 1.5 million customers in financial difficulty

The FCA found HSBC failed to properly consider people’s circumstances when they missed payments, sometimes taking disproportionate action. It paid £185m redress to 1.5m+ customers.

£57.4m

Bank of England regulator fines HSBC £57.4m over depositor protection failures

The Prudential Regulation Authority found HSBC failed for years to correctly identify which customer deposits were protected by the FSCS. It was the PRA’s second-largest fine at the time.

≈₩7.5bn

South Korea fines HSBC for illegal “naked” short selling

South Korean regulators fined HSBC’s Hong Kong office about 7.5bn won for naked short selling in 2021. A separate criminal case ended in acquittal, upheld by Korea’s Supreme Court in 2026.

$90m

$90m in US penalties for spoofing and traders’ unrecorded WhatsApp messages

US regulators penalised HSBC for a swaps supervisor’s spoofing and for staff conducting business on WhatsApp and personal texts that the bank did not keep.

UK advertising watchdog bans HSBC climate adverts as misleading

The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that HSBC posters about its climate finance left out material information about the bank’s continued financing of fossil fuels.

£63.9m

FCA fines HSBC £63.9m for eight years of money-laundering control failures

The UK Financial Conduct Authority found serious weaknesses in the systems HSBC used to spot money laundering across hundreds of millions of transactions a month, from 2010 to 2018.

HSBC freezes accounts of exiled Hong Kong politician Ted Hui and his family

After former Hong Kong lawmaker Ted Hui went into exile, accounts belonging to him, his wife and his parents were frozen at Hong Kong police request, briefly unfrozen, then frozen again.

FinCEN Files: HSBC moved money for an alleged Ponzi scheme after its record fine

Leaked US suspicious-activity reports showed HSBC moved money through Hong Kong accounts for WCM777, a scheme the SEC shut down. This happened soon after HSBC’s 2012 US money-laundering deal.

HSBC’s Asia chief signs petition backing Beijing’s Hong Kong security law

In June 2020 HSBC’s Asia-Pacific chief executive publicly signed a petition supporting the national security law. The bank said it “respects and supports all laws that stabilise Hong Kong’s social order”.

$192.35m

US: HSBC Swiss bank admits helping Americans evade tax, pays $192.35m

HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) admitted that from 2000 to 2010 it conspired to help US taxpayers hide up to $1.26bn in undeclared assets from the IRS.

€294.4m

Belgium: €294.4m settlement over tax fraud and money laundering

Belgian prosecutors said HSBC’s Swiss bank helped wealthy Belgians, many of them Antwerp diamond traders, move money into offshore companies in Panama and the British Virgin Islands.

$765m

$765m US penalty over pre-crisis mortgage-backed securities

The US government alleged HSBC misrepresented the quality of residential mortgage-backed securities it sold from 2005 to 2007. HSBC paid a $765m civil penalty.

$101.5m

HSBC pays $101.5m over traders front-running a client’s $3.5bn currency deal

HSBC entered a US deferred prosecution agreement on wire-fraud charges after its traders front-ran a $3.5bn trade for UK client Cairn Energy in 2011.

€300m

France: €300m to avoid trial for laundering the proceeds of tax fraud

HSBC’s Swiss private bank paid €300m under France’s first-ever corporate plea deal. Prosecutors said it helped French clients hide at least €1.6bn from the tax authorities.

$545.3m processed

Russian “Laundromat”: $545m passed through HSBC

Leaked banking records showed HSBC handled $545.3m from a scheme that moved $20.8bn out of Russia. That was more than any other UK bank, and most of it went through HSBC Hong Kong.

$5.1bn provisions

PPI mis-selling: $5.1bn set aside for compensation

HSBC’s own US filing shows it had set aside $5.1bn for mis-sold payment protection insurance by the end of 2016, and had paid out $4.1bn.

Panama Papers: HSBC requested more than 2,300 offshore shell companies

ICIJ analysis of the Mossack Fonseca files found HSBC and its affiliates requested more than 2,300 offshore companies for clients, more than any other bank.

CHF 40m

HSBC pays CHF 40m to close Geneva money-laundering investigation

Swiss police raided HSBC’s Geneva private bank after the Swiss Leaks revelations. HSBC then paid 40 million Swiss francs, the largest such sum ever paid in Geneva, to end the investigation.

$100bn+ in accounts

Swiss Leaks: HSBC’s Swiss bank and 100,000+ secret accounts

Leaked files on more than 100,000 HSBC Swiss clients with over $100bn showed the bank helped wealthy clients hide money. HMRC got the UK data in 2010 but prosecuted one person.

£216.4m

FX scandal: FCA fines HSBC £216m over currency trading failures

The FCA found HSBC’s weak controls let London traders put the bank’s interests ahead of clients in the G10 spot FX market from 2008 to 2013.

$1.92bn

$1.9bn US settlement over drug-cartel money laundering and sanctions breaches

HSBC admitted anti-money-laundering failures after US prosecutors said at least $881m in drug proceeds, including Sinaloa cartel money, was laundered through the bank.

US Senate investigation: “HSBC Case History”

A US Senate subcommittee found that Mexican drug money almost certainly passed through HSBC, that affiliates got around Iran sanctions, and that the US regulator failed to police the bank.

Interest-rate hedging products mis-sold to small businesses

In 2012 the FSA found serious failings in how HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and RBS sold interest-rate hedging products to small and medium-sized businesses. All four agreed to pay redress.

£10.5m fine + ≈£29m compensation

Record retail fine for mis-selling investments to elderly people paying for care

HSBC’s NHFA unit advised nearly 2,500 elderly people to put money for their care into investment bonds whose minimum term was often longer than they could expect to live.