HONG KONG-HS­BC plans to "ac­knowl­edge and apol­o­gise" for fail­ing to spot and deal with mon­ey laun­der­ing with­in the bank dur­ing a US Sen­ate pan­el hear­ing next week, ac­cord­ing to an in­ter­nal memo sent by its chief ex­ec­u­tive. "It is right that we are held ac­count­able and that we take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for fix­ing what went wrong," chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Stu­art Gul­liv­er said in a note sent to staff and seen by Reuters.

The US Sen­ate Per­ma­nent Sub-com­mit­tee on In­ves­ti­ga­tions has been in­ves­ti­gat­ing HS­BC for months as part of an ef­fort by Con­gress to probe shad­owy mon­ey flows. The ti­tle of the hear­ing is: Vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties to Mon­ey Laun­der­ing, Drugs, and Ter­ror­ist Fi­nanc­ing: HS­BC Case His­to­ry.

The Sen­ate com­mit­tee will re­lease a list of peo­ple they plan to call up lat­er this week. HS­BC spokesman Gareth Hewett de­clined to com­ment on the memo, but said the bank plans to "ful­ly co­op­er­ate" with any in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

Reuters