Discount Banking in Mexico

Sonic branding and the aesthetic infrastructure of everyday consumption

“…In July 2012, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) concluded an investigation into HSBC (the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) into possible criminal activity dating back to the early 2000s. HSBC was one of four banks that had taken advantage of the North American Free Trade Agreement between the US and Mexico, resulting in the foreign ownership of 85% of Mexico's local banks by 2002 (Marshall 2017, pp. 263–4).…”

“…263–4). The investigation found that HSBC had either ignored practices of money laundering or actively and knowingly sought to do business with high-risk companies, banks and nation states (including Tunisia, Iran and the Al Rajhi Bank in Saudi Arabia) known to have links to terrorist organisations (Levin and Coburn 2012; Marshall 2017, p. 275). Mexican journalist Annabel Hernandez estimates that since 2002, over 100,000 people have been killed by the cartels, including her own father (Jacobsen 2018).…”

“…Indeed, and as tabled in the Levin Report for the DOJ, HSBC had, despite the known risks, enabled money to be laundered between Mexico and the US, and thus allowed Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and Columbia’s Norte de Valle cartel to ‘clean’ an estimated US$881 million (Viswanatha and Wolf 2012). HSBC had also allowed US$60 trillion in wire transfers annually through the US without conducting due diligence (Marshall 2017: 276). Considering the scale of illegal activity that was being conducted in this period, HSBC was either negligent in its responsibilities as a financial institution or a knowing beneficiary of the narcotics trade.…”

“…However, this was a promise that had been made twice earlier, in 2003 and 2010. HSBC was fined a record penalty of US$1.9 billion (Marshall 2017, p. 276). Remarkably though, despite an obvious case of negligence and/or complicity, senior staff were spared criminal charges.…”

“…In December 2017, the DOJ formally ended the Deferred Prosecution Agreement, stating that HSBC had effectively complied with its terms and had sufficiently transformed its protocols to prevent further financial crime. Indeed, the case showed the Breuer Doctrine in action, the company's size deemed ‘too big’ for prosecution on account of the wider collateral consequences (Marshall 2017, p. 276). Put simply, banks like HSBC are ‘too big to fail’ (Hardouin 2017; Marshall 2017, p. 264).…”