The Background Bit……
A US Senate probe has disclosed how lax controls at Europe's largest bank left it vulnerable to being used to launder dirty money from around the world (to the tune of billions).
The report into HSBC identifies huge sums of Mexican drug money almost certainly passed through the bank. In addition, suspicious funds from Syria, the Cayman Islands, Iran and Saudi Arabia also passed through the British bank. The US Department of Justice said it is conducting a criminal investigation into HSBC's operations and HSBC has stated that it expected to be held accountable for what went wrong.
The Issue……
Well, there are plenty of issues to pick from this story. Drugs, criminal activities, dirty money, money laundering, corrupt banking. But my biggest issue with the whole story is one word that may have got lost……
British
HSBC are registered in Britain, run their operations from here and come under British law and regulation. Yet, it took the US to uncover the issue with Money Laundering. How many more stories (or clues as I like to call them) do we need to understand that the banking sector and the control of it is, well, out of control?
More bank bashing? More regulator bashing? More Government bashing? No……just a mere citizen worried about the greater powers that run our country only doing half a job……
Shameful.
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