HSBC hit with $84M penalty over AML failings

HSBC was found to have “serious” and “unacceptable” weaknesses in its automated monitoring systems from March 31, 2010, to March 31, 2018.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found that until 2014, HSBC failed to consider whether scenarios it used to identify indicators of money laundering or terrorist financing covered relevant risks. Similarly, the bank failed to carry out timely risk assessments for new scenarios after 2016.

The regulator also found the bank failed to test and update the parameters within the systems that were used to determine whether a transaction was indicative of potentially suspicious activity.

It also neglected to check the accuracy and completeness of the data being fed into them.

As a result, HSBC’s transaction monitoring systems were not effective for years—despite the risk being highlighted on numerous occasions both internally and externally.

The FCA said the bank’s failings often meant types of transactions that were in the millions in volume and billions of pounds in value were “either monitored incorrectly or not at all,” even though the bank should have been aware of the importance of managing these risks properly in line with money laundering regulations that took effect in December 2007.

Mark Steward, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight, called the failings “unacceptable” and said they “exposed the bank and community to avoidable risks, especially as the remediation took such a long time.”

The FCA’s decision notice provides a couple of examples in which the bank failed to spot suspicious activity. One involved a director of a construction company who was part of a criminal gang that tried to steal millions of pounds by setting up a string of fake companies as part of a tax fraud scheme. The bank failed to spot 16 suspicious deposits into his account on a single day.

In another instance, HSBC failed to detect or close the account of a customer imprisoned for smuggling cigarettes who was ordered to pay £1.2 million by the U.K. tax authority. Even while he was serving a four-year prison sentence, the bank still missed “a sustained period of unusual activity” of incoming and outgoing transactions, the FCA said.

HSBC did not dispute the FCA’s findings and agreed to settle at the earliest possible opportunity, qualifying it for a 30 percent discount and dropping the proposed penalty from £91,352,600 (U.S. $121 million). HSBC has undertaken a large-scale remediation of its AML processes, which was supervised by the FCA.

“We are pleased to resolve this matter, which relates to HSBC’s legacy anti-money laundering systems and controls in the U.K.,” the bank said in a statement. “HSBC has made significant investments in new- and market-leading technologies that go beyond the traditional approach to transaction monitoring. HSBC is deeply committed to combating financial crime and protecting the integrity of the global financial system.”

This is not the first time HSBC has been fined for lax money laundering controls.

In 2012, it forfeited $1.256 billion following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for failing to prevent laundering by Mexican drug cartels. The bank agreed to be monitored by U.S. regulators for five years.

The FCA said its fine did not relate to the U.S. action.