Financial Transparency Coalition

WASHINGTON, DC – In response to news today that British bank Standard Chartered PLC settled money laundering allegations with New York regulators by agreeing to pay $340 million in fines and submitting to monitoring, Heather Lowe, legal counsel and director of Government Affairs at Global Financial Integrity, released the following statement.

WASHINGTON, DC – The allegations levied yesterday by the New York State Department of Financial Services against British banking giant Standard Chartered demonstrate a systemic, widespread pattern of disregard for anti-money laundering policies at one of the world’s biggest banks, according to Global Financial Integrity, a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization.

According to a recent editorial from The Guardian, the illicit activities that drive capital flight, such as drug trafficking and terrorist financing, are actually supported by legal infrastructure. Namely, the lack of transparency in regions designated as "tax havens" allows for elaborate tax avoidance schemes and money laundering that funds these sorts of activities. As an example, banking company HSBC reportedly held a Cayman Islands subsidiary that "handled some 60,000 accounts," which "drug lords used . . . to fuel their jet-set lives." According to the newspaper, politicians must address the issue of tax haven abuse. In affected countries such...

Yesterday on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart dedicated his first three minutes to talking about the HSBC money-laundering case.  As he’s known to do, Stewart gave a quick primer of the situation coupled with some humor.  During his HSBC segment, he mentions how there are a lot of banking scandals that most people don’t really