On Sunday evening, September 20, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ, in English), an NGO based in Washington, published a report to denounce the role of banks in the laundering and circulation of dirty money, via transfers of funds derived from illicit activities (trafficking in drugs, arms or works of art, corruption, tax fraud, etc.). The report is based on a tiny portion of the suspicious activity reports (SARs) that banks submitted between 1999 and 2017 to the U.S. Treasury Financial Police (FinCEN), and that BuzzFeed News was able to obtain. But this sample still represents 2,000 billion dollars in suspicious transactions. In France, these declarations are intended for Tracfin

Unfortunately, nothing very new, but enough to remind bank shareholders of the risks of fines, or even the withdrawal of licenses. Also taking into account the rumours of total lockdown that were circulating on Monday, banks listed in Paris fell sharply that day, whether Société Générale (- 7.7%), Natixis (- 7.5%), BNP Paribas (- 6.4%), Crédit Agricole (- 5.4%) or HSBC (- 5.4%). The ICIJ report cited HSBC, Deutsche Bank, and American institutions (JPMorgan Chase, Standard Chartered, Bank of New York Mellon). For example, we remember that HSBC had to pay $1.9 billion in fines for helping South American drug cartels launder 900

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For investors, the necessary anti-money laundering controls mean that banks are starving themselves of revenue and experiencing an increase in the heavy regulatory costs that they already assume. For example, the workforce in Societe Generale's Compliance Department has increased 2.5 times in recent years, to 2,500 people. It is about meeting the obligation to know customers well, including when they go through various legal shells. An article in Le Monde, dated Wednesday, recalled old cases, including two concerning Societe Generale's at-risk customers. One involved the Rotenberg family, close to Vladimir Putin, and the other the Russian real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who allegedly had a role in Moscow's interference in the 2016 US presidential

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