Pressure Stepped Up On Ex-HSBC Trade Minister

Labour is continuing to heap pressure on Trade Minister Lord Green over claimsof money laundering at HSBC while he was in charge.

Chris Leslie, shadow financial secretary to the Treasury, has written to the peer calling for him to publicly answer a raft of questions about what he knew about the alleged wrong-doing at the bank.

A US Senate committee found HSBC accepted more than £9bn from high-risk money-laundering countries such as Mexico and Russia without properly monitoring transactions.

Lord Green spent three years as chief executive of the bank before being appointed chairman in 2006, a role he remained in until he was brought into government by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2010.

Mr Leslie demanded to know how much head of compliance David Bagley told him about problems with the bank's anti-money laundering systems.

He also pressed the minister to admit whether he knew that safeguards designed to block transactions to those with potential links to drug cartels, rogue regimes or terrorist organisations were being dodged.

The letter also calls on him to reveal if he raised concerns about the clearing of suspicious volumes of bulk travellers' cheques.

Mr Leslie wrote: "I am confident that you can answer all these questions completely, but want to encourage you to address them also in the public domain.

"It is important that ministers are seen to be as open as possible with the public and to account for their actions. I look forward to hearing from you shortly."