As the FT notes:

HSBC continued to act for funds that fed money into Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme in spite of repeated warning from the bank’s own executives and outside auditors about the “baffling” and potentially fraudulent structure of the fund, according to a US lawsuit launched against the global bank.

In the $9bn claim against HSBC and other European institutions, the trustee charged with recovering money for Mr Madoff’s victims alleged the warnings began as early as 2001, seven years before the scheme collapsed, revealing one of the biggest frauds in history.

I wonder what the Rev Stephen Green has to say about that?

He can’t say it as immaterial. It was $1 billion of funds and 33% of all money going to Madoff.

The proverbial blind eye appears to have been in operation. How else could they have missed this?