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The London-based bank has said the issue was “shameful and embarrassing” after the report criticised a “pervasively polluted” culture at the bank and said HSBC’s Mexican operations had moved US$7 billion into its U.S. operations between 2007 and 2008.

“The report undoubtedly caused considerable reputational damage to HSBC. The extent to which that has resulted in loss of business is hard to measure, but it has undoubtedly damaged our brand,” Gulliver said.

He said a number of staff had left the firm as a result of the investigation and a number had had pay clawed back.

Shares in HSBC were down 1.4% at 617.5 pence by 1130 GMT, slightly weaker than a fall in the European bank index.

“The money laundering provision is a concern, particularly given the uncertainty on what the final figure might be,” said Richard Hunter, head of equities at stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown.

The issue is another blow for the reputation of British banks, after rival Barclays was fined US$450 million in June for rigging Libor interest rates and the industry has had to set aside more than 12 billion pounds to compensate UK customers for mis-selling insurance products.

Gulliver said it would take time to clean up the mess.

“There’s a whole series of things that came from probably a decade in the 2000 to 2008-09 period that have surfaced now that the industry needs to sort out, remediate, and make sure doesn’t happen again.

”It will take a chunk of time to clean the system and then it will take a little bit longer than that for trust to be restored more fully,“ he said, adding that it was his job to get HSBC back to a position ”where it’s regarded as the best of the bunch“.