Standard Chartered chief executive Bill Winters
Standard Chartered announced on Tuesday that it will pay $1.1 billion to resolve investigations by US and UK regulators into its alleged breaches of sanctions against Iran.
The bank will pay $947 million to an assortment of five US agencies, led by the US Department of Justice; and £102 million to the UK Financial Conduct Authority.
The agreement resolves an issue that has been hanging over the bank since Peter Sands’ time.
It already paid a $667 million fine in 2012 over its handling of transactions involving Iran between 2001 and 2007. But then, while under a two-year deferred prosecution agreement, it revealed it had conducted other transactions for Iranian clients. A four-year extension to the deferred prosecution agreement and a new investigation followed.
It’s this latter investigation that has now been settled, and it seems to have cost more than the bank had expected: it had provisioned $900 million for the fines. On top of that, the deferred prosecution agreement has been extended (again), to 2021.
The circumstances that led to today’s resolutions are completely unacceptable and not representative of the Standard Chartered I am proud to lead today - Bill Winters, Standard Chartered
The whole investigation was embarrassing for Standard Chartered.
