Financial crime: Can Europe’s banks wash themselves clean?

European banks are trying to put a devastating series of money-laundering scandals behind them, but the crisis is far from over. The extra costs it implies are hitting them at the worst possible time, while the damage to their reputations will be even harder to repair.

A window cleaner at Canary Wharf

HSBC’s shaming over Mexican drug money earlier this decade is beginning to look like a mere preface to the crisis that banks across Europe are now facing from financial crime.