August 15, 2012
Bank reaches $340 million settlement after hiding business with Iran
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The British bank Standard Chartered has agreed to pay New York’s top banking regulator $340 million for covering up transactions with Iran in order to gain fees.
Earlier this month, New York’s Department of Financial Services accused the bank of concealing 60,000 transactions worth $250 billion from 2001 to 2010 that “left the U.S. financial system vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes.”
The bank said in a statement Wednesday that that “well over 99.9 percent” of the questioned transactions with Iran complied with all regulations and that the few transactions that did not amounted to just $14 million.
Standard Chartered’s dealings with Iran are being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Treasury and the Federal Reserve.
Standard Chartered said it “continues to engage constructively” with the other U.S. agencies and that none of its Iranian payments was on behalf of any designated terrorist group.
In addition to the $340 million settlement, the bank will be subject to two years of monitoring at its New York branch and will permanently install personnel to oversee and audit offshore monitoring.
A department hearing on the issue scheduled for Wednesday in New York City was adjourned. The date for the civil payment, which will go to the state’s general fund, has not been set.
