China Hits Top Influencer With $210 Million Fine Over Taxes

One of China's top e-commerce influencers has been ordered to pay an unprecedented $210 million fine for tax evasion. She's one of the country's most popular online retailers reportedly generating sales of $4.8 billion last year.

JPMorgan to Pay $166 Million Over Debt-Collection Abuses

From GARP –

“JPMorgan Chase & Co. will pay $166 million and change credit-card collection practices after regulators found that the bank used abusive tactics to collect debts, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said on Wednesday.

The company agreed to resolve claims that its Chase Bank USA and Chase Bankcard Services Inc. units pursued the wrong borrowers, sought incorrect amounts or so-called zombie debt that was too old, or relied on documents with improper signatures, according to a CFPB statement.

Of the penalties, $136 million settles claims brought by the Consumer Bureau, 47 states and the District of Columbia. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency imposed a $30 million penalty in a related action, CFPB said.”

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Sealed HSBC Report Shows U.S. Managers Battling Cleanup Squad

From Bloomberg Business –

“HSBC Holdings Plc, smarting from a $1.9 billion fine for providing banking to money launderers and sanctions-dodgers, promised U.S. officials it would clean up its act.

Within a year, its reform efforts met resistance from leaders of HSBC’s U.S. investment-banking unit - some of whom mounted a campaign of bullying, footdragging and discrediting against in-house watchdogs, according to previously unreported details from a report by the bank’s court-appointed monitor.

HSBC agreed to submit to the monitor’s oversight in late 2012, as part of a pact with the U.S. Justice Department that required it to bolster its in-house controls. Armed with that directive, HSBC compliance officers singled out a half-dozen clients whose activities could put the London-based bank at risk --including a Saudi bank that had been linked to Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers - and advised the U.S. investment-banking division to consider dropping those relationships.”

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20 global banks have paid $235bn in fines since the 2008 financial crisis

From International Business Times –

“Twenty of the world's biggest banks have paid more than $235bn (£151.71bn) in fines and compensation in the last seven years for breaching a variety of financial regulations, according to Reuters.

The financial institutions have been fined for misdeeds ranging from manipulation of currency and interest rate markets and compensating customers who were wrongly sold mortgages in the US or insurance products in Britain.

The main offenders were Bank of America, which faced by far the largest levy of around $80bn since 2008, and JP Morgan, paying up to $20m

In total, the banks were fined $141bn for mis-selling US mortgages and $44bn in compensation to UK customers.”

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