HSBC shutting Gupta-linked accounts

Global bank HSBC is shutting accounts associated with the Gupta family as it conducts a wide-ranging review of any possible involvement in suspicious transactions, with the assistance of external investigators, according to a report on the Fin24 site. HSBC first closed accounts held by companies linked to the Gupta family in 2014 after internal compliance procedures picked up transactions that couldn’t be explained as legitimate business, according to unnamed sources quoted in the report. ‘Any exposure that we had to the Guptas’ companies was inadvertent,’ HSBC reportedly said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg. ‘For the past couple of years, we have been in the process of identifying what there is and shutting it down.’