The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations today held a hearing to examine the vulnerabilities of the U.S. financial system to money laundering and terrorist financing, specifically focusing on HSBC’s failings in this area of compliance. The hearing comes a day after the PSI published a scathing report on HSBC’s anti-money laundering (AML) controls, examining various areas of abuse, including circumventing U.S. safeguards and offering correspondent services to high risk affiliates. During the hearing, Subcommittee Chairman Levin (D-MI) and Ranking Member Coburn (R-OK) grilled OCC and HSBC staff alike, with one HSBC employee even announcing his resignation during the hearing. Comptroller Curry, who has been under fire following JPM’s trading loss, was forced to apologize for the agency’s shortcomings yet again and said it will adopt more aggressive AML supervision going forward. This report analyzes today’s exhaustive, daylong hearing.
The full report is available to retainer clients. To find out how you can sign up for the service, click here