AFP Photo/Fabrice
Coffrini
TIME after tIMe - 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.
