HSBC has confirmed it is to pay US authorities $1.9bn (£1.2bn) in a settlement over money laundering, the largest paid in such a case. A US Senate investigation said the UK-based bank had been a conduit for “drug kingpins and rogue nations”. HSBC admitted having poor money laundering controls and apologized. The bank said it had spent $290m on improving its systems to prevent money laundering and clawed back some bonuses paid to senior executives in the past. But don’t you worry HSBC was ready and prepared for this scenario and set aside $1.5bn to cover the costs of any settlement or fines. I wonder if the profit from the money laundering deals was still greater than that fine.
Well it’s official! U.S. carrier Delta bought Singapore Airlines’ 49 percent stake in Britain’s Virgin Atlantic, for $360 million and agreed a transatlantic joint venture with Virgin. Under the joint venture they would share costs and revenues on routes between Britain and North America. The pair plan to cooperate on services between New York and London, with a total of nine daily round-trip flights from London Heathrow to JFK and Newark Airport. The deal will enable Delta to expand at London’s Heathrow airport, a lucrative hub for corporate passengers where landing slots are generally very hard to acquire. Virgin is the second-largest carrier at Heathrow after British Airways. (Seems like a lot of people want themselves some Virgin!)
The U.S. Treasury’s sale of its remaining stake in AIG will fetch $7.6 billion, bringing the government a total profit of $22.7 billion from its crisis-era bailout of the insurer. The share offering will close the chapter on one of the most politically contentious rescues of 2008, which ultimately gave AIG up to $182 billion of government support. At one point, the government estimated that it would never recover all of the bailout money, but as AIG restructured and returned to viability, it was able to repay the entire rescue fund plus generate a profit for U.S. taxpayers. And all is good in the world – well almost all.
HSBC has confirmed it is to pay US authorities $1.9bn (£1.2bn) in a settlement over money laundering, the largest paid in such a case. A US Senate investigation said the UK-based bank had been a conduit for “drug kingpins and rogue nations”. HSBC admitted having poor money laundering controls and apologized. The bank said it had spent $290m on improving its systems to prevent money laundering and clawed back some bonuses paid to senior executives in the past. But don’t you worry HSBC was ready and prepared for this scenario and set aside $1.5bn to cover the costs of any settlement or fines. I wonder if the profit from the money laundering deals was still greater than that fine.
Well it’s official! U.S. carrier Delta bought Singapore Airlines’ 49 percent stake in Britain’s Virgin Atlantic, for $360 million and agreed a transatlantic joint venture with Virgin. Under the joint venture they would share costs and revenues on routes between Britain and North America. The pair plan to cooperate on services between New York and London, with a total of nine daily round-trip flights from London Heathrow to JFK and Newark Airport. The deal will enable Delta to expand at London’s Heathrow airport, a lucrative hub for corporate passengers where landing slots are generally very hard to acquire. Virgin is the second-largest carrier at Heathrow after British Airways. (Seems like a lot of people want themselves some Virgin!)
The U.S. Treasury’s sale of its remaining stake in AIG will fetch $7.6 billion, bringing the government a total profit of $22.7 billion from its crisis-era bailout of the insurer. The share offering will close the chapter on one of the most politically contentious rescues of 2008, which ultimately gave AIG up to $182 billion of government support. At one point, the government estimated that it would never recover all of the bailout money, but as AIG restructured and returned to viability, it was able to repay the entire rescue fund plus generate a profit for U.S. taxpayers. And all is good in the world – well almost all.