StanChart faces fresh $300m US settlement
Standard Chartered is in talks to pay up to $300m to New York’s top banking regulator to settle allegations it failed to identify suspicious transactions.
New York’s Department of Financial Services could announce the settlement as soon as this week, people familiar with the matter said.
The current investigation is a follow-up to the bank’s 2012 settlement with the US authorities including the DFS, which alleged StanChart violated US sanctions laws that prohibited transactions with Sudan, Iran, Libya and Myanmar.
The UK-based bank first disclosed the new investigation earlier this month. At the time, Peter Sands, StanChart’s chief executive, said the potential violation related to a 2007 update of the group’s post-transaction surveillance systems, which had been “poorly implemented”.
The penalty of up to $300m is steep for a follow-on settlement and comes close to the original DFS fine in 2012, reflecting Mr Lawsky’s position that banks that sign up to certain terms in a settlement need to abide by them.
Jaspal Bindra, head of StanChart’s Asia operations, last week complained that regulators were treating banks like criminals for lapses. Mr Bindra told the Reuters news agency that “banks have been asked to play the role of policing anti-money laundering . . . [but when] we have a lapse we don’t get treated like a policeman, we are treated like a criminal”.
Source: ft
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