When it comes to money launderers, former HSBC Group Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver hit the nail on the head when he said, “We must always be one step ahead of them. As a steward of the global financial system, we must play a full part in protecting it. … It is up to us to protect the firm we work for [HSBC] from the reputational financial damage of allowing illicit actors into the banking system through HSBC; it’s you, it’s me.”
Good advice, but how can this be achieved when we—you, me, and the folks at HSBC—are unable to see who or what we are dealing with? Moreover, why, when we are unable to understand the ownership and control of a complicated offshore corporate structure, do we take a risk and give said structure and those behind it the benefit of the doubt?
