Britain’s biggest and most profitable bank last night joined the hall of shame when it was revealed it is to be fined $1bn (£600m) for money laundering offences. The disclosure comes hard on the heels of the Libor-fixing scandal which has claimed the scalp of Barclays boss Bob Diamond. The HSBC offences related to transactions that took place between 2004 and 2010. The bank will ‘acknowledge and apologise’ for its actions. The disclosure came in a leaked internal memo from the bank’s chief executive Stuart Gulliver and emerged in Hong Kong, the centre of its Asian operations.

Gulliver said: ‘Between 2004 and 2010, our anti-money laundering controls should have been stronger and more effective, and we failed to spot and deal with unacceptable behaviour.’ He said it was ‘right that we be held accountable and that we take responsibility for fixing what went wrong’. HSBC could be fined around $1bn (£600m) after a Senate probe which has lasted months as part of an effort to shine a light onto shadowy money flows.....Read more here: HSBC braced faces for $1bn US penalty money laundering offences | This is Money