USA In Shutdown

The USA is in financial shutdown, as Congress has failed to find a solution to the ongoing financial impasse (ie increasing the debt ceiling).

As a result, hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be put on leave without pay and all but the most critical government services will be halted for the first time in 17 years.

Methinks the voters of America will be less than impressed with the antics of their politicians.

Happy Fiscal Cliff Day

Good luck to the people of the world relying on American politicians not tipping the USA back into recession today!

HSBC On Probation

Congratulations to HSBC for entering the record books, wrt the size of settlement that it has agreed to for money laundering.

The BBC reports that HSBC has confirmed it is to pay US authorities $1.9BN in a settlement over money laundering, the largest paid in such a case.

A US Senate investigation said the UK-based bank had been a conduit for "drug kingpins and rogue nations".

HSBC has announced it has appointed a former US official to work as its head of financial crime compliance, which is a new position.

Bob Werner was previously the head of the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) - the agency responsible for enforcing the US sanctions on countries including Iran.

He will be responsible for beefing up HSBC's anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance systems.

As per HSBC's statement on the matter, it is now effectively on probation for the next five years:

"Over the five-year term of the agreement with the Department of Justice, an independent monitor will evaluate HSBC's progress in fully implementing these and other measures it recommends, and will produce regular assessments of the effectiveness of HSBC's compliance function."

The full text of the statement is reproduced below:

"HSBC has reached agreement with United States authorities in relation to investigations regarding inadequate compliance with anti-money laundering and sanctions laws. This includes a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the US Department of Justice. HSBC has also reached agreement to achieve a global resolution with all other US government agencies that have investigated HSBC's past conduct related to these issues¹ and anticipates finalising an undertaking with the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority shortly.

Under these agreements, HSBC will make payments totaling US$1.921bn, continue to cooperate fully with regulatory and law enforcement authorities, and take further action to strengthen its compliance policies and procedures.

Stuart Gulliver, Group Chief Executive, said: "We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again. The HSBC of today is a fundamentally different organisation from the one that made those mistakes. Over the last two years, under new senior leadership, we have been taking concrete steps to put right what went wrong and to participate actively with government authorities in bringing to light and addressing these matters.
"While we welcome the clarity that these agreements bring, ensuring the highest standards wherever we do business is an ongoing process. We are committed to protecting the integrity of the global financial system. To this end we will continue to work closely with governments and regulators around the world."

In the past several years, the Board of HSBC Holdings plc has taken decisive action to direct management to fix past shortcomings as they have come to light. Since 2011, with new senior leadership teams in place at both HSBC Group and HSBC North America, HSBC has taken extensive and concerted steps to put in place the highest standards for the future.

The Department of Justice has recognised these efforts in the DPA: "Management has made significant strides in improving 'tone from the top' and ensuring that a culture of compliance permeates the institution. The efforts of management have dramatically improved HSBC Bank USA's and HSBC Group's Bank Secrecy Act / Anti-Money Laundering and Office of Foreign Assets Control compliance programs."

As noted in the DPA, HSBC Bank USA already has, over the past several years, undertaken the following voluntary remedial measures:

• increased its spending on anti-money laundering (AML) approximately nine-fold between 2009 and 2011;
• increased its AML staffing nearly ten-fold between 2010 and 2012;
• revamped its Know Your Customer programme, including treating non-US HSBC Group Affiliates as third parties subject to the same due diligence as all other customers;
• exited 109 correspondent relationships for risk reasons;
• clawed back bonuses for a number of senior officers, and
• spent over US$290m on remedial measures.

HSBC Group has also undertaken a comprehensive overhaul of its structure, controls, and procedures. A number of these improvements is included in the DPA. Among other measures, HSBC Group has:

• simplified its control structure, allowing the Group to manage risks worldwide more effectively;
• elevated the role of Group Compliance and given it direct oversight over every compliance officer globally, so that both accountability and escalation now flow directly to and from HSBC Group Compliance;
• created the new role of Head of Group Financial Crime Compliance and Group Money Laundering Reporting Officer, who will help to establish a Global Financial Intelligence Unit;
• made other new senior hires with extensive experience handling relevant international legal and regulatory issues, including a new Chief Legal Officer and a new Global General Counsel for Litigation and Regulatory Affairs;
• adopted a set of guidelines limiting business in those countries that pose a high financial crime risk;
• issued a new global sanctions policy using a more extensive and consistent set of lists to screen all cross-border payments;
• commenced a review of all Know Your Customer files across the entire Group - the first phase of this remediation will cost an estimated US$700m over five years, and
• undertaken to implement single global standards shaped by the highest or most effective anti-money laundering standards available in any location where the HSBC Group operates.

Over the five-year term of the agreement with the Department of Justice, an independent monitor will evaluate HSBC's progress in fully implementing these and other measures it recommends, and will produce regular assessments of the effectiveness of HSBC's compliance function.

The agreement notes that HSBC Bank USA and HSBC Group have "provided valuable assistance to law enforcement." HSBC conducted multiple extensive internal investigations, voluntarily made employees available for interviews, and collected, analysed and organised voluminous evidence and information.

HSBC is firmly committed to putting in place robust standards that will help promote the integrity of the global financial system. 
Media enquiries to:
London 
Patrick Humphris
+44 (0)20 7992 1631
patrick.humphris@hsbc.com
New York
Robert A Sherman
+1 212 525 6901
robert.a.sherman@us.hsbc.com
Hong Kong 
Gareth Hewett
+ 852 2822 4929
garethhewett@hsbc.com.hk
Investor Relations enquiries to:
London
Guy Lewis
+44 (0)20 7992 1938
guylewis@hsbc.com
Robert Quinlan
+44 (0)20 7991 3643
robert.quinlan@hsbc.com
Hong Kong
Hugh Pye
+852 2822 4908
hugh.pye@hsbc.com

Footnote:
¹ These include: (i) a deferred prosecution agreement with the New York County District Attorney's Office; (ii) consent orders with the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System; (iii) an agreement with the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control; (iv) agreements and consent orders with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the "OCC"); and (v) a consent order with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ("FinCEN") of the Treasury Department. 
Notes to editors:
The websites of the agencies involved in these agreements are as follows:
US Department of Justice: www.justice.gov/UK Financial Services Authority: www.fsa.gov.uk/
The New York County District Attorney's Office: www.manhattanda.org/The Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System: www.federalreserve.gov/US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control: www.treasury.gov/ofac
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency: www.occ.gov/
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the Treasury Department: www.fincen.gov/
The HSBC Group
HSBC Holdings plc, the parent company of the HSBC Group, is headquartered in London. The Group serves customers worldwide from around 6,900 offices in over 80 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, North and Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. With assets of US$2,721bn at 30 September 2012, the HSBC Group is one of the world's largest banking and financial services organisations."

Das Rheingold - The Funeral of Siegfried?

Germany, the economic "powerhouse" of Europe, is experiencing a crisis of confidence; so much so that in order to assuage some of the more extreme doubters, the Bundesbank audited its gold held in Frankfurt (lest people doubt that it had been sold off) and even allowed MPs to visit it to check for themselves.

So far so wunderbar!

Unfortunately, Germany also holds gold deposits abroad. The FT reports that Suddeutsche estimates about 1500 tonnes are held by the Fed, and about 800 tonnes by the central banks of England and France. The total value being approximately €133BN.

The German court of auditors has, not unreasonably, demanded regular audits of Germany's gold reserves abroad.

Fair enough, and perfectly reasonable, were it not for one "small" problem.

The last audits in New York were in 1979/80, and since then whilst the Bundesbank has been allowed into vault it has not been allowed to open the boxes in which the gold is allegedly stored.

As we all know markets are driven sentiment, and sentiment is affected by fear and doubt. Unless a full audit is conducted in the near future, the fear and doubt will grow to a critical mass and Siegfried may well meet his end.

Rumour has it that the US gold reserves in Fort Knox haven't been audited either, maybe the US needs to do the same as Germany and lance the boil of doubt?

Liborgate

Liborgate, despite the brief interlude provided by the chaff from the DFS over Standard Chartered, rumbles on.

The BBC reports that seven banks (HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and UBS), are to be questioned in the US for alleged Libor manipulation.

The US authorities will look to see if there is sufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution.

The coming weeks will see much behind the scenes haggling between the banks, the regulatory authorities and governments, in order to avoid this going to court.

Mervyn King Chides US Authorities

Mervyn King is less than impressed with the US over its "shoot first, ask questions later" approach to financial regulation, wrt dragging Standard Chartered through the mire of public opinion before even completing its investigation.

King is quoted in Boston.com:

"I think all that the U.K. authorities would ask is that various regulatory bodies that are investigating a particular case try to work together and refrain from making too many public statements until the investigation is completed."

King is too polite to say that this is in fact a trade war between the US and UK.

The USA's Little List

Standard Chartered (a British bank) finds itself on an ever growing American list of British banks that have been accused of all manner of "dastardly" deeds of alleged money laundering etc, that "in theory" threaten the safety of the USA.

Unsurprisingly, as a result of the public witch hunt and accusations, shares in Standard Chartered have fallen by 24%; as the USA lets loose in the media in a concerted attempt to bring the bank to heal before any evidence has actually been presented in court.

Standard Chartered deny the accusations.

Does anyone else not find it a tad "odd" that the US authorities are not pursuing US banks with such vigour through the courts and the media?

As one unnamed London based director allegedly emailed in 2006:

"You f****** Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we’re not going to deal with Iranians.”