The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has announced that HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) has agreed to pay $75 million to resolve charges related to manipulative and deceptive trading and record-keeping failures.
CFTC said in a statement that HSBC Bank USA consented to pay a $45 million civil penalty for manipulative and deceptive trading in connection with swaps, spoofing, and record-keeping failures.
Separately, the regulator announced that HSBCA Bank USA, HSBC Bank Plc, and HSBC Securities have agreed to pay $30 million to resolve charges related to insufficient record-keeping and supervision.
“In recent years, we have made significant investments in enhancing our compliance procedures and have worked diligently to maintain the highest standards of professional conduct throughout our organization,” a spokesperson for HSBC said in an email statement.
Regulators determined that HSBC traders engaged in manipulative and deceptive interest rate swap and other financial product trading. The CFTC’s order states that in some instances, bank supervisors were aware of the misconduct, and in one instance, a senior manager directed the misconduct.
HSBC neither admitted nor denied the allegations, which allegedly occurred between March 2012 and April 2016.
According to the CFTC, HSBC did not prevent employees, including senior staff and compliance personnel, from discussing work via personal text messages and WhatsApp. Thursday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission penalized HSBC for related offenses.
Regulators have targeted registered dealers for the use of personal devices, claiming that failure to maintain records can impede supervision and investigations into possible wrongdoing.