HSBC to find a settlement

One of the biggest financial scandals (see an old but dedicated database in our Weblist), a criminal probe into laundering of drug-cartel and other money , according to a WSJ note.

Again, unsolved questions present their burden on business making and daily life conditions. How regulators perform their tasks, when such enormous mass of money can be hidden to controls? How come, not a single dollar of money donated to banks in State bail outs has been directed to business and consumer markets from 2007 till now?

Questions with ambiguous answers. One of the regulators, the US Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner formerly manager of large financial institutions as Goldman Sachs and IMF, is on stage in any scandal: from the late 2000s financial crisis and the rescue of major financial institution with public money, to AIG bonuses and payments to banks, to LIBOR manipulation.

In the HSBC affair, few people will probably pay for their crimes. As the bank says to WSJ, it is “having ongoing discussions with officials (including DOJ) on a number of regulatory and compliance matters. The focus of official investigations and requests for information is confidential. In all cases, we are cooperating”.

HSBC Compliance Chief resigns, although he probably won’t be imitated by many others.