UK bank STILL on the hook over Iran deals
Standard Chartered facing £1.2bn fine in US
STANDARD Chartered faces an extra three months on probation with US authorities as it haggles over a £1.2bn fine for allegedly busting sanctions in Iran.
The City bank will now be saddled with an independent monitor, who oversees its money-laundering controls, until the end of March.
If it puts a foot wrong before then, StanChart could be hit with a criminal prosecution which would potentially see it stripped of its licence to handle dollars – dealing a catastrophic blow to the business.
The threat of a US prosecution has been hanging over StanChart since 2012, when it was found to have hidden £200bn of illicit deals with Iran which gave drug kingpins and terrorists access to the financial system. It was fined £415m by American regulators at the time and forced to sign a socalled deferred prosecution agreement, which required the bank to install an independent monitor to make sure the law was not broken again.
The DPA had been due to finish last month, but has now been extended for three months as regulators investigate further allegations of wrongdoing between 2012 and 2014.
StanChart said: ‘The group continues to co-operate fully with an investigation by the US authorities into historical conduct and controls issues, which was first disclosed in 2014. The vast majority of the issues under investigation predate 2012, and none occurred after 2014.’
US investigators believe the bank’s Dubai branch worked with Iranians after the DPA was signed, violating sanctions meant to cut the country out of the financial system due to its support for terrorism. The US authorities are reportedly seeking a £1.2bn payment over the alleged breach, although the final fine could be lower.
It is a fresh blow for chief executive Bill Winters, who has been trying to clean up since he took charge in 2015. He has hired a team of ex-spies and former FBI detectives to catch those breaking rules.
StanChart is also under investigation for handling suspicious money transfers from clients in Indonesia.
In March it was fined £3.1m for a money-laundering breach in Singapore. And the bank’s anticorruption tsar quit last year after he was reportedly quizzed over claims he changed a performance review for a woman he was having an affair with.