Leading Global Bank HSBC provided a conduit for "drug kingpins and rogue nations", according to a us senate committee investigating money laundering claims at the bank.. Its report said suspicious funds from countries including Mexico, Iran and Syria had passed through the bank. The committee is hearing from HSBC officials, one of whom said he found it "painful and embarrassing" to talk about the bank's shortcomings. HSBC's head of group compliance, David Bagley, stepped down at the hearing. Mr Bagley told the committee that the bank had "fallen short of our own and regulators' expectations but that a major overhaul of the bank's compliance activities was underway and that HSBC had "learned a lot of valuable lessons". HSBC was in April last year given permission to open a representative office in Kenya for marketing and liaison purposes.