HSBC Bank Fined £63.9 Million for Eight Years of Deficient Transaction Monitoring
Company: HSBC Holdings plc
Summary
In December 2021, the UK Financial Conduct Authority fined HSBC Bank plc £63,946,800 for failings in its anti-money-laundering transaction-monitoring systems. The FCA found serious weaknesses in three key parts of HSBC's automated monitoring controls from 31 March 2010 to 31 March 2018. These included failures to adequately assess whether monitoring scenarios covered relevant risks, failures to appropriately test and update system parameters, and failures to check the accuracy and completeness of data feeding the monitoring systems. The FCA said the weaknesses persisted for a prolonged period despite internal and external reports highlighting concerns and exposed HSBC to avoidable financial-crime risks. HSBC did not dispute the FCA's findings and received a 30% settlement discount. Source: Financial Conduct Authority https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-fines-hsbc-bank-plc-deficient-transaction-monitoring-controls