LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) - HSBC has reported
itself to Australia's financial regulator for possible breaches
of anti-money laundering rules, the bank disclosed in a
regulatory filing by its Australian subsidiary.
The breaches involved small amounts of cross-border foreign
currency transactions involving non-banking financial
institutions that the London-headquartered bank was unable to
properly report for technical reasons, HSBC said.
The 2019 annual report of HSBC's Australian subsidiary said
it had flagged the potential breaches to AUSTRAC, a government
agency that combats money laundering and financial crime.
"...regulators and other bodies may make findings that the
bank has engaged in misconduct, including breaches of law or
conduct that falls below community standards and expectations,”
HSBC said.
An HSBC spokeswoman in Hong Kong said the bank would not
comment further on its engagement with regulators.
HSBC paid a $1.9 billion fine and entered into a five-year
deferred prosecution agreement with U.S. authorities in 2012 for
failing to prevent Mexican drug cartels from laundering hundreds
of millions of dollars.
The bank has since invested billions of dollars into its
internal controls, hired thousands of compliance staff and hired
an independent monitor at the request of regulators to check its
progress on improving its systems to prevent more breaches.
(Reporting By Sumeet Chatterjee in Hong Kong and Lawrence White
in London. Editing by Jane Merriman)