Why is America even involved? Its Mexican branches of a British/Asian bank. Why do US regulators have to get their fingers in everything.
HSBC's Money Laundering Scandal (2022)
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Re: HSBC's Money Laundering Scandal (2022)
#32The unfortunate outcomes of these events is that, like a ratchet, it just gets harder and harder for ordinary citizens to go about their lives. It used to be that you could just walk into a bank and open an account on the spot. And it's still like that in many developing countries. It's now at the point that just having a bank account is becoming an asset in itself. It's an increasingly major process to open one, and…
I have a Schwab account I made online and had to deal with basically 0 humans to create. The worst I have to deal with is sometimes if I spend a lot at once I have to answer some automated questions to confirm my information hasn't been stolen. How do you reconcile this with the claim it's getting "harder and harder" when the bar to open and access a bank account is so low?
Re: HSBC's Money Laundering Scandal (2022)
#33Asking because I don't know how to find out... Which large banks are scandal free? I don't mean perfidy, like the 2009 mortgage crisis or LIBOR or using bail out money for bonuses or helping clients with tax avoidance. I mean straight up no doubt illegal and criminal stuff. Laundering, bribes, violating sanctions, and so forth.
I think you also have to ask are the regulators really finding real crimes or prosecuting grey areas that will win lots of money out of politically unpopular companies. New York makes a lot of money out of these fines which they can use for whatever they want.
Re: HSBC's Money Laundering Scandal (2022)
#34I remember years ago, I had to help my friend in translation during an investigator for money laundering involving HSBC account he could not open, yet the bank later opener an account under his name- using his ID and documents he sent for the account without him knowing it, because we were told at the end that if they would call us again it meant my friend was guilty.
Re: HSBC's Money Laundering Scandal (2022)
#35Why aren't bankers who launder billions for drug cartels given the kind of multi-decade federal prison sentences that 25-yr-old kids smuggling a few kilos of cocaine from Mexico to the United State are? It certainly makes it look like outfits like the FBI and DEA are little more than the enforcement arms of an organized white-collar crime cartel operating out of Wall Street offices, doesn't it? Amusingly James Comey…
Next time your bank account gets closed or an important payment gets held because the bank thinks there is something potentially dodgy, you will reflect on your comments about bankers going to jail if some drug dealer ever manages to get a payment through the banking system. Laundered money doesn't come with a "drug money" sticker, usually it comes from a business that is designed to look legit.
Re: HSBC's Money Laundering Scandal (2022)
#36Why is America even involved? Its Mexican branches of a British/Asian bank. Why do US regulators have to get their fingers in everything.
Read Red Card (about the soccer scandal).
Almost everyone in the world uses a clearing operation so that the money passes through New York, if only for a millisecond. So they can usually find an excuse.
Re: HSBC's Money Laundering Scandal (2022)
#37Why aren't bankers who launder billions for drug cartels given the kind of multi-decade federal prison sentences that 25-yr-old kids smuggling a few kilos of cocaine from Mexico to the United State are? It certainly makes it look like outfits like the FBI and DEA are little more than the enforcement arms of an organized white-collar crime cartel operating out of Wall Street offices, doesn't it? Amusingly James Comey…
It is complicated, for many reasons. A very important one is that responsibility is very diluted. - A bank executive opens an account to a seemingly legit company. - The compliance department OKs the account opening. - A bank teller receives 50k USD in cash every month. - Another teller receives another 50k USD in cash every month. - The head of the branch doesn't report strange activity. - The AML system by the bank…
Then by that logic, the drug runner should not be jailed either, as they too are a victim rather than an accomplice. May be they too are being threatened by the cartel to cooperate, and so on.
Taken far enough, you really can't penalize anyone and things like sanctions don't work and have no teeth.
Re: HSBC's Money Laundering Scandal (2022)
#38Why is America even involved? Its Mexican branches of a British/Asian bank. Why do US regulators have to get their fingers in everything.
Mexican branches, moving money to US branches. Don't want the US involved in your banking operations, don't do business in the US. (Of course you might find not being able to do many things involving USD inconvenient if you want to be a relevant bank)
Re: HSBC's Money Laundering Scandal (2022)
#39The unfortunate outcomes of these events is that, like a ratchet, it just gets harder and harder for ordinary citizens to go about their lives. It used to be that you could just walk into a bank and open an account on the spot. And it's still like that in many developing countries. It's now at the point that just having a bank account is becoming an asset in itself. It's an increasingly major process to open one, and…
> It's an increasingly major process to open one
No disagreements with your post otherwise, but I haven’t found this to be the case personally. I’ve opened two bank accounts in the past year without much hassle - one a joint account at a big bank with my partner that we were able to do fairly painlessly from our house. (Opening account in her name was online, but then we had to call in for someone to manually add me to it while we were both present for security purposes.) The other at a credit union just last week - I showed them my driver’s license, answered a few questions about what products I was interested in, bought a share, and walked out with a bank card.
Re: HSBC's Money Laundering Scandal (2022)
#40Many years ago I did some work at a large race track and they were very concerned about money laundering. They worked closely with the local authorities to recognize any potential issues. I guess it all depends on the companies leaders as to what they want to risk. There are many opportunities to be complicit. Illegal exports, selling customer information, aiding money laundering, ... It seems wrong that petty crimin…
> I guess it all depends on the companies leaders as to what they want to risk.
That's my experience as well. I've never worked in banking, but I've worked with igaming companies before, and some are basically ignoring regulation and will just stop something if a regulator catches them while others are 100% by the book.
I've once asked the COO of a fully compliant company why they're competing with their hands tied behind their back and his reply was simply "because I don't want to go to jail". I'm guessing the folks at other companies had a different risk-reward analysis.