Currency-market failings, front-running a client’s $3.5bn trade, a euro interest-rate cartel, spoofing and illegal short selling: HSBC’s trading desks have been penalised on three continents.
01
Fine upheld€31.7m
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.
02
Fined≈₩7.5bn
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.
03
Fined$90m
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.
04
Admitted$101.5m
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.
05
Fined£216.4m
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.