NewArgentina suspends HSBC Argentina’s right to transfer money for 30 days

Argentina said it was suspending HSBC Bank Argentina’s right to transfer money abroad for 30 days due to "irregularities", two months after charging it with helping clients evade taxes by siphoning their funds off to Switzerland.

HSBC Bank Argentina has failed to fulfil a pledge to fix the irregularities in credit transfers, the Argentine central bank said in an emailed statement.

"The central bank of Argentina has decided to temporarily suspend HSBC Bank Argentina’s operations of transferring money and assets abroad for a period of 30 days, which could be reduced if the entity adopts the necessary corrective measures," it said.

HSBC Bank Argentina declined to comment.

“We are working to address this new request of the Central Bank in order to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. This is not affecting the other operations of the bank. HSBC is working with and will continue to work with the Justice and regulators in Argentina," HSBC said in a statement from its Hong Kong office to the South China Morning Post.

Argentina last November charged HSBC with aiding more than 4,000 clients to evade taxes by stashing their money in secret Swiss bank accounts.