HSBC is expected to pay more than $1.5bn (£933m) in fines to US authorities within weeks to settle money-laundering investigations into its business.

HSBC is expected to pay more than $1.5bn (£933m) in fines to US authorities within weeks to settle money-laundering investigations into its business. The bank could be fined the sum as early as next week as part of a settlement with federal prosecutors, according to reports yesterday. HSBC has put aside $1.5bn to meet the cost of the fines, but admitted at its latest results presentation that the eventual penalty could be “significantly higher” and that it could face criminal charges. Yesterday’s reports put the likely size of the fine at $1.8bn. HSBC declined to comment. The fines relate to an investigation of HSBC’s US and Mexican operations that found the bank had allegedly ignored warnings that billions of dollars of funds being moved between the two subsidiaries were linked to drug trafficking. A Senate committee described the bank as “pervasively polluted for a long time”. It highlighted what it said were lax controls and inadequate compliance by staff as the bank was accused of handling transactions involving terrorists, drug lords and rogue regimes....Read more here: HSBC set to pay more than $1.5bn to settle money laundering probe - Telegraph