Concerned over a U.S. Senate investigation report pointing to serious shortcomings in HSBC’s safety mechanism against money-laundering and terror funding, including that in India, New Delhi on Thursday said it had sought more information from Washington so that it could thoroughly investigate the matter.
“This is a very serious matter… we will get to the bottom of it. We need to get some more information from the Americans. We will get that very soon. This has been worrying us. Our Financial Intelligence Unit will probe the entire matter,” Home Secretary R.K. Singh told journalists here.
Nirupama tasked with it
India has also asked its Ambassador to the U.S. Nirupama Rao to get more information from U.S. authorities on the global banking giant’s alleged violation of safety mechanism compliance against money-laundering and terrorist financing, where involvement of its Indian employees is also suspected.
Notably, a probe by the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that HSBC’s Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Department, which included employees in India, “weak monitoring procedures,” while its internal control systems were also not up to the mark.