Standard Chartered may face suspension
Standard Chartered Plc conducted $250 billion (Dh918 billion) worth of transactions with Iranian banks over seven years in violation of federal money laundering laws, a New York regulator said in an order warning that the firm’s US unit may be suspended from doing business in the state.
Standard Chartered earned hundreds of millions of dollars in fees for handling transactions on behalf of Iranian institutions that are subject to US economic sanctions, New York’s Department of Financial Services said on Monday.
The London-based bank, which generates almost 90 per cent of its profit and revenue in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, was ordered by the regulator to hire an independent, onsite monitor to oversee operations in the state.
When the head of the bank’s US unit warned his superiors in London in 2006 that Standard Chartered’s actions could expose it to “catastrophic reputational damage,” he received a reply referring to US employees with an obscenity, according to the order.
“Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we’re not going to deal with Iranians?” a bank superior in London said, as per the New York regulatory order.
Share prices fall
Standard Chartered fell 7.4 per cent to HK$174.20 (Dh82.5) at the noon break in Hong Kong trading, headed for the biggest decline in more than 2 1/2 years. Its London-traded shares had risen 11 per cent this year before yesterday, making it the third-best performing British bank stock after Lloyds Banking Group Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc.
The bank said in a statement that 99.9 per cent of its transactions with Iran complied with US Treasury regulations, and that the total value of transactions that weren’t in compliance was less than $14 million.