banking

Banks Launder Money With Impunity

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laundering moneyHSBC is a bank. They are also a money launderer. Last week the Senate subcommittee on investigations, part of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, issued a report (pdf) and held a hearing, U.S. Vulnerabilities to Money Laundering, Drugs, and Terrorist Financing: HSBC Case History. Contained within is a laundry list, if we can use the pun, of HSBC evil doings and how they mechanically laundry money for drug cartels, terrorists and tax evaders.

This is over a decade past 9/11 and seemingly HSBC has been operating with impunity. One of the conduits for money laundering is correspondent banking. Correspondent banking is when one financial institution provides services to another financial institution to move funds, exchange currencies, cash monetary instruments, or carry out other financial transactions. Even though in 2002, correspondent banking was recognized as a primary method to fund terrorist activities, the doors have not been shut.

Correspondent accounts continue to provide a gateway into the U.S. financial system, and wrongdoers continue to abuse that entryway.

Below is what has been done since 9/11, yet correspondent banking is alive and well.

Saturday Reads Around the Internets - Big Brother Strikes Again

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shocknews Welcome to the weekly roundup of great articles, facts and figures. These are the weekly finds that made our eyes pop.

 

Target Knows You're Pregnant Before You've Told Anyone

The never ending invasion into our privacy knows no bounds. We just saw Google ignoring browser privacy settings and even when you delete cookies, flash cookies and even use proxy servers, you're being tracked. For those who have strong boundaries this is just irritating as hell. It's also stupid in terms of statistics. One percent, which is the typical dismissed exception of these profiling algorithms, equates to 3 million people in the United States.

Could there be a China crisis? Has the China's economy really survived the global financial crisis?

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Originally published by QFINANCE

By political commentator Ian Fraser

Last year very few commentators saw a doomsday scanario developing for the Middle Kingdom. These few included some lonely hedge fund managers such as Eclectica's Hugh Hendry and Kynikos's Jim Chanos. The country’s property bubble, troublesome banking sector and credit tide caused the most concern.

The China-bashers were given a pause for thought when second quarter data showed that China's economy grew at 9.5% in the second quarter -- meaning its economic engine has shown unexpected consistency over the past 12 months. However, wrapped up in the figures were warning signs, including that consumer price inflation reached 6.4% for the year to June. And, as The Economist pointed out, despite a state-sponsored slowdown on bank lending, overall credit availability has actually increased thanks to increased use of "social financing", including corporate bonds and some loans repackaged by “trust” companies. The Economist said:

"China seems to be getting less bang for its financial buck. In 2007, Fitch reckons, it took 1.28 yuan of extra financing to produce an additional yuan of GDP. Now it takes 2.38. China’s growth may be remarkably even. But its financial system is having to pump harder to maintain the pace."

It's fair to say scepticisim about China, its post-crisis success and the nature of its economic miracle has been growing in recent weeks.