Household HSBC Watch

Trying to play as a British bank and appealing to people as “your local bank” HSBC wants people to forget HSBC is the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank. But when one runs afoul in China regulators do not look the other way like some do in the United States. We offer as evidence the news from Hong Kong about the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank Corporation - HSBC.

HSBC confirmed Thursday that the bank was targeted in a crackdown by China’s foreign exchange regulator on speculative capital inflows. HSBC had recently been inspected by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) and had taken action to ensure they complied with China’s forex rules.

SAFE said Tuesday it would crack down on fraudulent export transactions that disguise the movement of speculative funds after finding “some problems” in commercial banks’ foreign exchange dealings. HSBC confirmed it was inspected by SAFE in March and April this year. “A number of issues were identified, principally relating to the compatibility of HSBC’s systems with the required regulatory reporting processes,” the global banking giant said in a statement.