US lawmakers lash global bank over laundering controls

WASHINGTON: In a hard-hitting report, US lawmakers accused the global bank on Monday of opening the doors of the financial system to terrorists, drug dealers and money launderers.

Senators found the London-based lender allowed affiliates in countries such as Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh to move billions of dollars in suspect funds into the United States without adequate controls.

At a time when the banking sector is already under fire for manipulating interest rates and the reckless trades that led to the 2008 financial crisis, the bank moved quickly to apologize and promise to improve its procedures.

"In an age of international terrorism, drug violence in our streets... and organized crime, stopping illicit money flows that support those atrocities is a national security imperative," said Senator Carl Levin.


"If an international bank won't police its own affiliates to stop illicit money, the regulatory agencies should consider whether to revoke the charter of the US bank being used to aid and abet that illicit money," he warned.

The bank said it would attend a Senate hearing on Tuesday and swears it has created a new simpler-to-manage global structure for its operations while doubling the budget of the compliance wing charged with applying anti-laundering rules.

"We will acknowledge that, in the past, we have sometimes failed to meet the standards that regulators and customers expect," the bank said in a statement.

"We will apologize, acknowledge these mistakes, answer for our actions and give our absolute commitment to fixing what went wrong," it added. (AFP)