Household HSBC Watch

Sat, Oct. 29, 2005 - - Wachovia Corp., the No. 4 U.S. bank, told its embassy and government ministry customers Friday that it’s sending their business to HSBC Bank USA. The division of London’s HSBC Holdings Plc is helping to transfer the accounts, HSBC Bank USA said. Financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed. Wachovia spokeswoman Amy Jones confirmed the Charlotte-based bank is exiting the business. Diplomats and other embassy workers make up the bulk of the business, which has made it a focus of the Patriot Act of 2001. The act requires banks to step up their reporting of suspicious transactions, and it expanded on earlier rules to boost banks’ responsibility for monitoring customers for signs of terrorist activities.

Riggs Bank, a unit of Riggs National Corp., agreed in January to disband its embassy banking business in pleading guilty to helping former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and the leaders of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea hide hundreds of millions of dollars.

The decision followed a yearlong money-laundering probe by prosecutors. Riggs was sold to PNC Financial Services Group in May.

The majority of the management team at the Washington-based Wachovia unit will join HSBC, the banks said.