Page 19 - HSBC (D) Case Study

Deferred Prosecution

Agreement

A Deferred Prosecution

Agreement (DPA) is an

agreement between a

prosecutor and an

organisation which could

be prosecuted, under the

supervision of judge.

The agreement allows a

prosecution to be

suspended for a defined
period, in the case of HSBC

for five years, provided the organisation meets certain

specified conditions. If it failed to meet these conditions

the bank could face severe repercussions. Potential
penalties included further multi-billion-dollar fines or

having its US banking licences withdrawn, which would

have crippled the bank.

The DOJ had appointed a former New York prosecutor to

independently, monitor HSBC’s anti-money laundering

programme at a cost of $200million a year (until July
2017) thereby tightening up its compliance procedures.

and has a workforce of more than 6,000 people

dedicated to ensuring they are adhered to.