ML-Implode News - HSBC in Settlement Talks with U.S on Money-Laundering Probe

``"This is an epidemic of banks willfully, consistently violating economic sanctions," Jimmy Gurule, a former undersecretary for enforcement at the U.S. Treasury, said of sanctioned-nation money laundering. "It calls for more serious sanctions than a monetary fine for an individual bank that does nothing more than harm shareholders."
HSBC's $700 million set-aside, if paid, would constitute the largest U.S. settlement reached over such allegations, topping the $619 million in penalties and forfeitures paid in June by ING Groep NV, the biggest Dutch financial-services company. Standard Chartered agreed on Aug. 14 to pay $340 million to settle the New York state matter, an accord that broke a previous pattern of resolving all such U.S. probes at once in a unified agreement.''

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HSBC in Settlement Talks with U.S on Money-Laundering Probe