Big Banks Fined Big Time for Money Laundering

If you are having trouble getting your bank to work for you, it turns out that was not the case with Iran, the Sudan and Mexican drug cartels, who all used some world banks to launder their money.

Europe biggest bank, HSBC, will pay $1.92 billion to settle a money-laundering probe by authorities in the United States, the bank confirmed Dec. 10. The probe of the British bank has focused on the transfer of billions of dollars on behalf of nations like Iran, which are under international sanctions, and the transfer of money through the U.S. financial system from Mexican drug cartels.

We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again. The HSBC of today is a fundamentally different organization from the one that made those mistakes, said Stuart Gulliver, the bank chief executive, in a statement on Tuesday.

Just days before, Standard Chartered Plc agreed to pay $327 million of fines after regulators alleged it violated U.S. sanctions with Iran. The bank will pay $100 million to the Federal Reserve and $227 million to the U.S. Department of Justice and the District Attorney for New York County. The settlement includes a $132 million fine to the Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control, according to a statement from the Federal Reserve. The orders address unsafe and unsound practices related to inadequate and incomplete responses to examiner inquiries as well as insufficient oversight of its compliance program for U.S. economic sanctions, Bank Secrecy Act, and money laundering requirements.