HSBC contrite as senators hammer money-laundering lapses

HSBC Holdings Plc told a U.S. Senate panel on Tuesday that it has dealt head-on with allegations of pervasive money-laundering through bank accounts, saying it has overhauled how it polices transactions, exited lucrative businesses and shaken up executive leadership. HSBC offered up the changes after the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report accusing the British bank of a "pervasively polluted" culture, underscoring money-laundering problems have been flagged by regulators for nearly a decade. The report said the bank routinely acted as a financier to clients routing funds from the world's most dangerous corners, including Mexico, Iran and Syria. During a hearing on the Senate report, David Bagley, a top compliance executive at HSBC since 2002, said he would step down. The resignation was part of HSBC's effort to apologize and show that it has cleaned up its act, even as the bank faces fresh questions about whether it has really fixed major flaws in catching and stopping money laundering. A Reuters investigation has found persistent lapses in the bank's anti-money laundering compliance since 2010.

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