HSBC has confirmed it will pay over $1.9bn to authorities in the United States to settle allegations of money laundering.
The London-based bank faces the massive payment to settle charges that its lax money-laundering policies allowed clients to move shadowy funds from Mexico, Iran, the Cayman Islands, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
"We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again," Reuters quoted HSBC Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver as saying.
He said the HSBC today is a fundamentally different organisation from the one that made those mistakes.
"Over the last two years, under new senior leadership, we have been taking concrete steps to put right what went wrong and to participate actively with government authorities in bringing to light and addressing these matters."
The bank said it expected to also reach a settlement with British watchdog, the Financial Services Authority.
US and European banks have now agreed to settlements with US regulators totalling some $5bn in recent years on charges they violated US sanctions and failed to police illicit transactions.
No bank or bank executives, however, have been indicted as prosecutors have instead utilised deferred prosecutions.
HSBC said it would pay $1.921bn, continue to cooperate fully with regulatory and law enforcement authorities and take further action to strengthen its compliance policies and procedures.
US prosecutors have agreed to defer or forgo prosecution.
Last month, HSBC told investors it had set aside $1.5bn to cover fines or penalties stemming from the inquiry and warned costs could be significantly higher.
The report of the HSBC settlement came the same day the US Treasury announced that another British bank, Standard Chartered, would pay $327m to settle charges it had violated US sanctions on Iran, Burma, Libya and Sudan.
Standard Chartered had already paid a similar amount to a New York regulator in August.
