What the hell is going on at HSBC?

HSBC’s head of compliance David Bagley told the US Senate committee he will step down after investigators released a damning report detailing more than a decade of lax controls and linked Britain’s biggest bank to money-laundering, terrorist funding, tax evasion and financial ties to Iran that violate US sanctions.

The Senate probe also laid heavy criticism on HSBC’s prime US regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and warned HSBC that it would consider revoking its charter to operate in the United States.

HSBC has not responded to IBTimes UK requests for a comment on the planned resignation.

The 335-page report by the US Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations, which draws from 1.4 million documents and interviews with 75 HSBC officials, describes a “pervasively polluted” culture and a “dramatic failure of accountability” at HSBC, according to Senator Carl Levin, the committee’s ranking lawmaker.

His committee accuses the bank of using a global network of branches and a US affiliate to create a gateway into the American financial system that led to more than $30bn in suspect transactions linked to drugs, terrorism and business for sanctioned companies in Iran, North Korea and Burma.

Money laundering cocaine dollars for Latin Americans by way of China?  Great.  Banoodles.

Source:

HSBC Head of Compliance David Bagley Steps down over Money Laundering Scandal (IBT)