BBC News, 4
August 2013
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The honorary consul of Benin said his mission had been having trouble finding a new bank |
The
Vatican's ambassadorial office in Britain, the Apostolic Nunciature, is among
those said to be affected.
The head of
the UK's Consular Corps told the Mail on Sunday the decision has created
"havoc".
HSBC said
embassies were subject to the same assessments as its other business customers.
They need
to satisfy five criteria - international connectivity, economic development,
profitability, cost efficiency and liquidity.
A spokesman
said: "HSBC has been applying a rolling programme of 'five filter'
assessments to all its businesses since May 2011, and our services for
embassies are no exception.
"We do
not comment on individual customer relationships."
The Mail on
Sunday reported that the High Commission of Papua New Guinea and the Honorary
Consulate of Benin have also been asked to move their accounts within 60 days.
Bernard
Silver, head of the Consular Corps, which represents consuls in the UK, told
the paper: "HSBC's decision has created havoc.
"Embassies
and consulates desperately need a bank, not just to take in money for visas and
passports but to pay staff wages, rent bills, even the congestion charge."
John
Belavu, minister at the Papua New Guinea High Commission, said: "We've
been banking with HSBC for 22 years and for them to throw us off in this way
was a bombshell."
Lawrence
Landau, honorary consul of Benin, told the paper his mission had been having
trouble finding a new bank.
He said:
"We have been trying everyone but all the UK banks are clamming up."
Suspicious
accounts
Embassies
are treated like business customers by banks as they generally use services
like cash and payroll management and can take out loans.
They also
have to pay for ambassadorial accommodation and costs such as school fees for
the children of diplomats - expenses that are difficult to meet without a valid
UK bank account.
They are
sometimes considered to be at risk of money laundering activities because of
their political exposure and banks have been warned in the past for failing to
flag up suspicious accounts.
The Riggs
National Bank in Washington was fined and later sold off after a 2004 US Senate
report revealed executives in its embassy business had helped Chilean dictator
Augusto Pinochet hide millions of dollars.
HSBC was
fined $1.92bn (£1.26bn) by US authorities last year after it was blamed for
alleged money laundering activities said to have been conducted through its
Latin American operations by drug cartels.
The bank
admitted at the time that it had failed to effectively counter money
laundering.
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