Mubasher: The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) has dismissed the criminal charges against HSBC, which have threatened the bank since it was fined for money laundering and sanctions breaches five years ago.

HSBC said the DoJ would file a motion with the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York seeking the dismissal of the charges deferred as part of a settlement with the lender in December 2012, which prompted criticism that the bank was too big to jail, the Financial Times has reported on Monday.

The five-year deferred prosecution agreement meant the DoJ could have reopened the criminal case if the bank had repeated similar breaches during that period.

This is is expected to allow HSBC to return more of the $8bn of trapped capital that regulators have forced it to keep in the US, which is likely to fund an extension of its share buy-back programme.

Shares in HSBC rose 1.1 per cent on Monday morning.