HSBC To Pay $1.92 Billion Fine In Money Laundering Case

British bank HSBC said it has reached an agreement with United States to pay fines totaling $1.921 billion in relation to investigations regarding inadequate compliance with anti-money laundering and sanctions laws.

“We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again,” said Stuart Gulliver, Group Chief Executive. “The HSBC of today is a fundamentally different organisation from the one that made those mistakes. Over the last two years, under new senior leadership, we have been taking concrete steps to put right what went wrong and to participate actively with government authorities in bringing to light and addressing these matters.”

HSBC said the agreement includes a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the US Department of Justice, as well as an agreement to achieve a global resolution with all other US government agencies that have investigated HSBC’s past conduct related to these issues.

The bank said it continue to cooperate fully with regulatory and law enforcement authorities, and take further action to strengthen its compliance policies and procedures.

According to Gulliver, HSBC welcomes the clarity that these agreements bring, “ensuring the highest standards wherever we do business is an ongoing process. We are committed to protecting the integrity of the global financial system. To this end we will continue to work closely with governments and regulators around the world.”

HSBC said in recentyears, the Board of HSBC Holdings plc has taken decisive action to direct management to fix past shortcomings as they have come to light.