British bank Standard Chartered Plc will pay $340 million to settle allegations that it hid $250 billion in transactions tied to Iran. New York’s top regulator also said Tuesday that the bank agreed to install a monitor for at least two years to evaluate its money-laundering risk, Reuters and The Associated Press reported.
The New York Department of Financial Services had claimed that Standard Chartered illegally colluded with Iran’s government to hide close to 60,000 secret transactions from law enforcement officials from 2001 to 2007. The agency claimed the “rogue institution” exposed the U.S. banking system to threats from terrorists, drug traffickers and corrupts states. Standard Chartered said it “strongly” rejected the regulators’ claims, the AP reported. It was the third British bank to get embroiled in U.S. law enforcement probes this summer. In June, Barclays Plc. paid $453 million to settle U.S. and U.K. probes that it rigged a global lending benchmark. A month later, HSBC Holding Plc. was subject to a scathing report from the U.S. Senate, which criticized the bank’s efforts to monitor suspect transactions.
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