Heads Should Roll

In recent times 'banker bashing' has become a new bloodsport in the UK - with former knight Sir Fred Goodwin, for example, being stripped of his grand title - and turned into a national pariah.

Albeit with an eye watering financial settlement to keep Fred in the luxurious style he had grown accustomed to over the years - it has to be said.

So it's all the more surprising that another scandal involving the giant HSBC bank - has gone by relatively unnoticed - or unpunished at least.

Because this great British banking institution has been found guilty by the American authorities of operating extremely lax money laundering policies - which allowed Mexcian drug money, Iranian terrorist money and suspicious Russian money to enter the USA - where it effectively then disappeared.

Now this is a scandal of enormous proportions and - given the circumstances - it's clearly not one of the so-called victimless, white collar crimes - because drug money in Mexico has cost many good people their lives.

Not to mention the detail of the many social and other problems created by the drug lords and drug gangs - in peddling their wares.

A US Senate committee found, after a year long investigation, that HSBC had violated several rules, which exposed the U.S. financial system to “a wide array of money laundering, drug trafficking, and terrorist financing.”

According to the report, HSBC’s Mexican affiliate channeled $7 billion into the U.S. between 2007 and 2008 which possibly included “proceeds from illegal drug sales in the United States.”

So why then have heads not rolled at HSBC - why has no one been prosecuted or ended up in jail? 

After all money laundering rules have been in place for many years - and were tightened up extensively in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack on America in 2001.

So there is no excuse for HSBC - the rules must have been flouted either deliberately or in such a negligent way to be regarded as both reckless and dangerous.

In which case you would think that the regulatory authorities in America and the UK would insist on throwing the book at HSBC - and follow this up by calling in the police.

Yet all that appears to have happened is that HSBC has been hit with huge fines of almost £1 billion  - although to my mind this amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist.

I, for one, can't see senior executives and board members at HSBC losing any sleep - if they are not held to account personally for such a catastrophic failure - in what is one of the world's leading banks.

Strange, don't you think - just where are our politicians when you need them?