Charismatic

...what a massive shables. The obligatory Tory sleeze ("All in this together..."?), 1000 people who we know used Swiss accounts and avoided tax but only 1 prosecution, positioning the bank to assist drug cartels in Mexico and no action against HSBC yet .

Tom H

What's more infuriating is that, this has allegedly been going on since 2010

I'm sure the Conservatives will find a way to blame Gordon Brown for this.

All in this together - what a joke!

Charismatic

And now much more extensive money laundering, even the Swiss won't look the other way.

What the hell where they thinking, does the concept of conducting business in accordance with legal and ethical principals not apply at HSBC? This definitely calls for a number of tripping accidents involving upturned swords, starting with Stephen Green and HSBC directors.

My count: Aiding tax evasion, money laundering, defying international sanctions and exchange rate manipulation.

ETA: HSBC has to be able to show it has not aided or abetted money laundering since the end of 2012. Under it's deferred prosecution agreement with the US HSBC must cooperate fully on any crime with US prosecutors and commit no further crimes. The result of doing so may be a loss of it's US banking licence which would probably permanently end it's ambition of remaining a global bank.

Pulaski

HSBC has been on the back foot in the US for a number of years. They have very few branches outside NY state - a couple in New Jersey, and a handful in Florida and California. They sold off many of their branches in New York too. In short, HSBC isn't much in the US, and has been going backwards for almost ten years.

Ironically Midland Bank's plans to be a global powerhouse floundered in the US too, when they bought and mismanaged Croker Bank in California. Midland sold Croker to Wells Fargo, and not long after HSBC snapped up the shares in Midland that it did not already own and rebranded Midland as HSBC in the UK. ..... As the world's most valuable bank (by stock market value) but with no presence outside the US, I wonder if Wells Fargo would be interested in one slightly soiled global banking network?

Charismatic

Can't see Wells Fargo being interested in that particular business model.

Pulaski

Agreed, but they might like the assets.

Charismatic

Not if they have to take on the liabilities from HSBC as well .

scot47

City of London screws up again. Are we surprised ?

amideislas

What makes you think this started in 2010? I can assure you, it's been going on since long before that. HSBC was a major offshore bank even in the 90's.

And I have no doubt that if extensive inquiries were made into all parties' members finances, it would be found that they all have been either complicit, or have themselves "avoided" tax in one way or another, and I wouldn't be surprised to find HSBC, Barclays or any of the others listed in those findings. In fact, I have no doubt that you have, too. I've certainly taken steps reduce my tax burden, just as most people have.

FSA fines HSBC 100,000 for transaction reporting breaches | News | Money Marketing

Scheme to save taxpayers money that became tax avoidance scheme | Politics | The Guardian

http://www.justice.gov/tax/usaopress..._convicted.pdf

https://shahdixit.com/site/taxes8

Charismatic

Rates manipulation case: HSBC is still under investigation, 5 other banks have just settled for US$5.8bn with guilty plea in the same investigation.