NY judge approves $1.9bn HSBC penalty

A judge in New York has approved a deal that will allow HSBC to pay a record $1.9bn (€1.46bn) penalty to settle claims that the British bank helped Mexican drug traffickers, Iran, Libya and others under US suspicion or sanction, move their money around the world.

The settlement, originally announced in December, is the largest penalty imposed on a bank.

The US Justice Department’s case maintained that HSBC’s failure to monitor itself allowed criminals and suspect countries, like Cuba, Burma and Sudan, to move hundreds of millions in prohibited transactions through US financial institutions from the mid-1990s to 2006.