John Christensen ■ HSBC, money-laundering and Swiss regulatory deterrence
Published:
5 June 2015Reading time:
< 1
Number-crunching, à la Private Eye: the case of HSBC and its Swiss fine for “organisational deficiencies” in relation to money-laundering.
- $42.8 million Fine imposed on HSBC by Geneva authorities for “organisational deficiencies” related to money-laundering uncovered in #SwissLeaks
- More than $100 billion Amount held in accounts exposed in #SwissLeaks
- 0.04% Fine as a percentage of (revealed) assets under management
- 0.00% Likely deterrent effect
Not all the assets under management were laundered, of course. Far from it, we must hope. But the “organisational deficiencies” – including reassuring clients that no information would reach their home authorities, or using offshore accounts to circumvent disclosure requirements – represent risks that applied to the whole operation.
To put it another way, the fine is about a fifth of the £135 million in tax that HMRC recovered in the UK alone.
Even the prosecutor imposing the fine was embarrassed, and “launched a stinging attack” on the Swiss law that apparently prevented anything within yodeling distance of being a deterrent.
Cross-posted from Uncounted
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