In January 2018 HSBC Holdings agreed to pay $101.5 million and entered a three-year deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice over two counts of wire fraud.
The case centred on a December 2011 transaction for Cairn Energy, a UK oil and gas company that needed to convert about $3.5 billion into sterling. Prosecutors said HSBC traders bought sterling ahead of the client’s trade and then executed it in a way designed to drive up the price, profiting at the client’s expense. HSBC settled separately with Cairn.
HSBC received a 15% reduction in recognition of its cooperation and remediation. HSBC’s own agreement was not affected by what happened later to an individual trader: its former global head of FX cash trading was convicted at trial in 2017, but that conviction was overturned in 2025 after the US Supreme Court narrowed the fraud theory used to convict him (see Staff & executives).
HSBC’s position
HSBC accepted responsibility and cooperated with the investigation.
The evidence
3 sources- Exhibit AFormer Head of HSBC’s Global Foreign Exchange Cash Trading Sentenced to PrisonUS Department of Justice · 26 April 2018 · justice.govOfficial record
- Exhibit BHSBC Agrees to $101M Penalty to Settle FX Front-Running InvestigationNew York Law Journal · 18 January 2018 · law.com
- Exhibit CHSBC to pay $101.5 million to resolve federal fraud chargesFox Business (AP) · 18 January 2018 · foxbusiness.com
Last checked 2 November 2026. Something wrong or out of date? Tell us and we’ll correct it.