HSBC is to pay a record $1.9bn (£1.2bn) to settle allegations it laundered money for drug cartels and broke sanctions in the US to allow terrorists to move money around the financial system, in the latest embarrassment for Britain's banks. The bank's chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, said he was "profoundly sorry" as he confirmed the scale of the fine – the largest for such an offence and even greater than the £940m the bank had feared it faced after the allegations first surfaced in the summer. "We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so ... (full story)