HONG KONG: HSBC Holdings Asia-Pacific chief executive Peter Wong Tung-shun said the bank is under no pressure to cut jobs in Hong Kong and will not freeze employees’ wages.
“We actually have been recruiting new staff and we have no plan to freeze their salaries. But of course, their salaries will be decided on their performances,” Wong said in Beijing yesterday on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress.
Asked about tax evasion at its Swiss arm, Wong said it happened long ago and the bank has made many improvements, making regulations much stricter.
Wong said he did not see capital flow out of Hong Kong, but if the US raises the interest rate, the SAR will be affected though there won’t be a large amount of outflow.
HSBC, Bank of America, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, meanwhile, were found to have provided access to the American financial system to a European lender accused of laundering money for organized-crime groups, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The paper said HSBC’s US unit provided correspondent bank accounts to Banca Privada d’Andorra, or BPA, and immediately terminated its correspondent banking relationship after the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s announcement on Tuesday.
The agency named BPA as a “primary money-laundering concern” and alleged its managers for years knowingly facilitated transactions by money launderers.
