BUSINESS LIVE: HSBC fined £64m for money laundering failures; Retail sales jump 1.4%; Johnson Matthey to sell health business
Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority has fined HSBC £63.95million for failings in its anti-money laundering processes.
The regulator said HSBC had made a string of failings, including inadequate monitoring of money laundering and terrorist financing scenarios until 2014, and poor risk assessment of ‘new scenarios’ after 2016.
British retail sales rose more strongly than expected last month, helped by Black Friday discounts, early Christmas shopping and an absence of lockdown restrictions that closed many stores a year earlier, Office for National Statistics figures reveal.
Retail sales rose by 1.4 per cent in November and were 4.7 per cent higher than a year earlier, the ONS said.
Chemicals maker Johnson Matthey will sell its health business to investment firm Altaris Capital Partners for an enterprise value of about £325million, about eight months after it began a review of the division.
The London-listed company said on Friday it would retain a 30 per cent stake in the business, which develops and manufactures specialist and complex active pharmaceutical ingredients for pharma and biotech customers.
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The FCA said it had found that three key parts of HSBC’s transaction monitoring systems showed serious weaknesses over a period of eight years from 31 March 2010 to 31 March 2018.