Mexico’s National Securities and Banking Commission said that HSBC has paid the fines, equivalent to PHP379m pesos, which is approximately half of the subsidiary’s 2011 annual profits.
The fine follows the report by the US senate, which revealed that the bank had seriously breached the anti money laundering provisions, drug cartels and terrorist financiers for many years.
Guillermo Babatz, president of the commission, said in the mid-2000s, HSBC had become the main transporter of dollar cash transfers from Mexico to the US, accounting for about half of the total flow, even though it wasn’t then among the country’s largest banks.
The Mexican banking commission slammed HSBC for violating the financial regulation from early 2000 and failing to respond to objections raised by regulators.
In a statement, HSBC Mexico acknowledged that it failed to report 39 suspicious transactions and had been late in reporting 1,729 others.
"HSBC Mexico recognizes it failed to strictly comply with banking regulations, and with the standards that regulators and clients expect of our institution," the bank said.
"HSBC regrets that actions in the past, which have been corrected, affect the bank’s image today."
