HSBC THE WORLDS LOCAL BANK


Few things have cheered me up quite as much recently as the phenomenon of whistle blowers in the banking system, most recently in HSBC,[1] blowing the cover on numerous British tax avoiders and in some cases evaders, seeking to salt their money away in offshore accounts. I love to picture the faces of the senior management team at the bank, a similar hue to, I imagine, piss pot pink.

In his Book ‘You Can’t Read This Book,’ Nick Cohen explores the tyranny of the workplace including the rewards, none, for whistle blowing. We live in a culture where people who blow the whistle on wrongdoing are at best liable to render themselves unemployable at worst to find themselves faced with prosecution.

The true heroes of contemporary life are the corporation whistle blowers. Whistle blowing, to quote Julie Biden[2]  ‘....is a brave act by those who are willing to give solid information to the authorities while running the risk of being pilloried or punished for doing so; the whistleblower is motivated not by a desire for attention, but to expose abuse and corruption at the highest level.’ We should honour them and establish mechanisms, both legal and financial to support them when they expose unethical or illegal activities.

Meanwhile the much vaunted British banking system is further exposed not only as financially inept but morally bankrupt, with HSBC now exposed as a conduit for drug cartels and money laundering, about to receive a record fine in the US. To quote Simon Bowers in the article cited below in Fridays Guardian:-
 
'HSBC has come in for sharp criticism over failures in its scrutiny of depositors, particularly in relation to organised crime. This week the company said it was braced to receive a fine which could be more than $1.5bn (£938m) from the US authorities. This penalty follows a finding by a Senate committee that the bank had exposed the US financial system to "a wide array of money laundering, drug trafficking and terrorist financing risks due to poor anti-money laundering controls".



Think on this the next time you see one of those cosy banking adverts voiced over by Michael Gambon.


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