Three British lenders named in report

BRITAIN-BASED HSBC Holdings Plc, Standard Chartered Plc and Barclays Plc, Germany’s Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG, and US-headquartered JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of New York Mellon Corp were

among the lenders named in the report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists based on leaked documents obtained by BuzzFeed News.

The report was based on 2,100 leaked suspicious activity reports (SARs), covering transactions between 1999 and 2017, filed by banks and other financial firms with the US Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Banks are required to file an SAR whenever handling funds that cause grounds for suspicion of criminal activity.

While some banks said many of the transactions happened a long time ago, and they had since put robust checks in place, the reports revealed broader problems with the monitoring system at the heart of global policing of money laundering and other criminal activity.

Many of the suspicious transactions were linked to companies incorporated in Britain or offshore British territories, prompting calls from action groups for tougher rules.

“If the government cares at all about the UK’s reputation globally, it must stop rolling out the red carpet to the criminal and corrupt and refuse to legitimise their money,” Global Witness said.

The UK government said it was working on reforms.

Global banks in recent years have boosted investments in technology and staff to deal with tighter anti-money laundering and sanctions regulatory requirements.