this is parroted so often but is usually quantifiably false. Usually the fines are small compared to overall profit of a company because the actions are relatively small compared to total operations, but most fines defintely cost the company more than not doing the actions would have in financial cases.
HSBC paid 1.9B fine for money laundering related to Mexican drug cartels.
To understand this number, lets look at the DOJ claims:
> Between 2006 and 2009, according to DOJ, HSBC failed to monitor $670 billion in wire transfers and $9.4 billion in cash transactions from its Mexico bank operations.
We don't know exactly how much HSBC profited from these specific alleged activities, but even a 1% rate (pretty low if they turned a blind eye, especially on the cash side) would net more than triple the fine. (and yes, profiting 7B and paying 2B in fines is a net profit of 5B)
I do, however, agree that quotes like "X days profit" generally refer to the entire bank's profit and not to the actual activity in question
According to HSBC's US site, there's a fixed $30 rate for a signle wire transfer. Mexico's rates are probably less (for reference, here in France it costs me nothing to do a wire transfer within Europe).
I sincerely hope they didn't come out on top of this.
