AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini
yaSalamUMATi - HSBC menuntut diplomat membatalkan akaun bank. HSBC telah meminta kedutaan dan konsulat di seluruh DUNIA untuk menutup akaun mereka dan memindahkan dana mereka kepada bank-bank lain dalam tempoh 60 hari.
Jabatan Negara Amerika Syarikat berkata 40 negara telah terjejas, 16 di Afrika.
Bank yang berpangkalan di London dalam satu kenyataan misi yang mereka anggap ‘pelanggan perdagangan adalah risiko kerana mereka takut wang boleh berakhir dalam pengubahan wang haram atau kartel dadah.
HSBC demands diplomats cancel bank accounts. HSBC has requested embassies and consulates around the world to close their accounts and transfer their funds to other banks within 60 days.
The US State Department said 40 countries have been affected, 16 in Africa.
The London-based bank said in a statement the missions which they consider ‘commercial customers’ are a risk because they fear the money can end up in a money laundering or drug cartel.
Europe’s largest bank started to gradually revise its list of clients in 2011 to absolve the bank of liability in condoning money-laundering activity, specifically among Latin American drug cartels.
Ivan Velazquez Caballero, aka "Z 50" atau "El Taliban" (C), pemimpin kanan dalam kartel dadah Zetas dan ahli kartel Teluk, dibentangkan kepada media di ibu pejabat Tentera Laut Mexico di Mexico City (Ivan Velazquez Caballero, aka "Z 50" or "El Taliban" (C), senior leader in the Zetas drug cartel and member of the Gulf cartel, is presented to the press at the Mexican Navy headquarters in Mexico City (AFP Photo/Alfredo Estrella – think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)
Bank terbesar di Eropah secara beransur-ansur mula menyemak senarai pelanggan pada tahun 2011 untuk membebaskan bank liabiliti dalam membiarkan aktiviti pengubahan wang haram, khususnya di kalangan Amerika Latin kartel dadah.
Bank itu berkata, keputusan itu hanya memberi kesan kepada akaun perniagaan, dan akaun tidak peribadi.
Pada tahun 2012, HSBC telah dikeluarkan lebih daripada $ 2 bilion dalam denda oleh Jabatan Negara Amerika Syarikat untuk memegang aset berkaitan dengan Iran, Libya, dan cincin dadah Mexico.
Pada tahun 2004, Bank Negara Riggs di Washington telah didenda banyak selepas didapati telah dibantu diktator Chile Augusto Pinochet menyimpan wang itu haram.
Diplomat telah mengadu langkah telah terganggu kerja mereka, kerana mereka menggunakan bank untuk membayar gaji, membayar sewa pejabat dan kediaman, dan menerima bayaran untuk pasport dan visa.
"Kami telah khidmat HSBC selama 22 tahun, dan apabila mereka melemparkan kita seperti itu, ia melanda seperti bom,” John Bielawa, seorang pegawai di Suruhanjaya Tinggi Papua New Guinea berkata.
HSBC beroperasi di 80 buah negara dan operasi asing dilihat sebagai kedua-dua risiko politik dan kewangan. Pendapatan suku kedua terlepas anggaran penganalisis, tetapi syarikat itu masih mencatatkan kenaikan 10% peratus dalam keuntungan setengah tahun kepada $10.28 billion.
The bank said the decision only affects business accounts, and not personal accounts. In 2012, HSBC was issued over $2 billion in fines by the US State Department for holding assets connected to Iran, Libya, and Mexico’s drug rings.
In 2004, Riggs National Bank in Washington was fined heavily after being found to have aided Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet keep his funds clandestine. Diplomats have complained the measure has disrupted their work, as they use the bank to pay salaries, pay office and residential rent, and receive payments for passports and visas.
"We were served by HSBC for 22 years, and when they threw us like that, it hit like a bombshell," John Bielawa, an official at Papua New Guinea’s High Commission said.
HSBC operates in 80 countries and its foreign operations are viewed as both a political and financial risk. Second quarter earnings missed analysts’ estimates, but the company still posted a 10 percent increase in half year profits to $10.28 billion.
