US authorities avoided indicting HSBC on criminal money-laundering charges because they feared such charges might destabilise the global finance system, the New York Times' Dealbook reports.As described yesterday in Banking Day, HSBC will pay US$1.92 billion (A$1.83 billion) in US fines over accusations of money-laundering for Mexican drug cartels, involvement in the financing of terrorism, and other offences."[A]uthorities debated for months the advantages and perils of a criminal indictment against HSBC," Dealbook reports."A money-laundering indictment, or a guilty plea over such charges, would essentially be a death sentence for the bank," the report said, adding that it could have blocked HSBC from operating in the US.The Financial Times reports the bank will spend US$700 million on new safeguards against money laundering. It quotes John Morton, director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as saying that HSBC had become "the vehicle of choice for illegal money men." And it quotes US Department of Justice senior official Lanny Breuer as saying that "the record of dysfunction that prevailed at HSBC for many years was simply astonishing."