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3 news to start your week: June 22

Written by TWC Staff | Mon, Jun 22, 2026

HSBC fined over Australian scam failures

Financial Times

HSBC has agreed to pay a penalty of A$35 million (US$24.6 million) for failing to protect Australian customers from fraud. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) filed legal action against the bank in 2024, alleging widespread and systemic deficiencies in its customer protections. Rather than contest the case, HSBC admitted to the serious failures identified by ASIC, including inadequate internal controls and failure to address customer complaints promptly.

The bank issued an apology to affected customers and confirmed it had paid A$28 million in refunds and compensation. This enforcement action is one of several the bank has faced in recent years. In January 2024, the Bank of England fined HSBC £57.4 million for failing to safeguard customer deposits, and in 2021, the bank was penalized £64 million in the United Kingdom for weaknesses in its anti-money laundering controls.
 

EU set to remove barriers to banks' cross-border capital flows

Financial Times

European Union banks are set to gain greater freedom to transfer funds across member states. They may receive capital relief on mortgages and loans extended to unrated companies, according to a draft European Commission report reviewed by the Financial Times ahead of its planned release next month.

The report outlines proposals to reform bank deposit insurance structures across the bloc and to revisit capital requirements for investment firms. The measures are intended to close the performance gap between European banks and their US counterparts, though they stop short of the broad capital requirement reductions the industry has sought.

The Commission identifies three core obstacles to European banking competitiveness: fragmentation within the EU single market for banking; the need to adapt international standards to European conditions; and regulations it describes as unnecessarily complex and burdensome. To address the first issue, the report proposes granting banking supervisors authority to manage capital and liquidity requirements at the parent company level, rather than requiring individual subsidiaries in each member state to hold reserves separately. The European Central Bank has advocated for this change, estimating that approximately €225 billion in capital and €250 billion in liquidity are currently locked up due to national restrictions.

 

Banco del Bienestar accumulates more than 25 fines totaling 8.8 million pesos from the CNBV

El Financiero

Despite serving as Mexico's primary distributor of social welfare programs, Banco del Bienestar has accumulated more than 25 fines over the past 18 months. Public records from the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) show the institution continues to face operational and regulatory compliance problems.

According to enforcement records published on the regulator's website since 2014, the CNBV issued 25 fines against Banco del Bienestar between January 2025 and June 15, 2026. The penalties range from just over 26,000 pesos to more than 1.4 million pesos, reflecting recurring deficiencies across multiple areas of operation rather than a single isolated incident.

The grounds for the sanctions are varied but consistent in what they reveal: failures to comply with regulatory requirements and prudential standards, inaccurate accounting records, deficiencies in comprehensive risk management, basic security lapses, internal control weaknesses, delays in submitting information required by the authority, and omissions of specific regulatory obligations.