HSBC Executive Resigns at Senate Money Laundering Hearing

HSBC’s head of group compliance, David Bagley, told a Senate hearing he will step down amid charges the bank gave terrorists, drug cartels and criminals access to the U.S. financial system by failing to guard against money laundering.

Bloomberg reports that Bagley was among at least six HSBC executives who testified before the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations today after the panel released a 335-page report describing a decade of compliance failures by Europe’s biggest bank. London-based HSBC enabled drug lords to launder money in Mexico, did business with firms linked to terrorism and concealed transactions that bypassed U.S. sanctions against Iran, Senate investigators said in the report.

'As I have thought about the structural transformation of the bank’s compliance function, I recommended to the group that now is the appropriate time for me and for the bank for someone new to serve as the head of group compliance', Bagley said. 'I have agreed to work with the bank’s senior management towards an orderly transition of this important role'.

Irene Dorner, president and chief executive officer of HSBC North America Holdings Inc., was also among executives who appeared before the committee.

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HSBC Executive Resigns at Senate Money Laundering Hearing