From the record 2012 US settlement over Mexican and Colombian drug-cartel money to UK and Swiss anti-money-laundering failures, these are the cases where regulators, prosecutors and investigative journalists found dirty money moving through HSBC.
01
Breach foundFINMA 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.
02
Fined£63.9m
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.
03
ExposedLeaked 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.
04
Exposed$545.3m processed
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.
05
SettledCHF 40m
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.
06
Admitted$1.92bn
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.
07
InvestigatedA 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.