Investors cheer Standard Chartered settlement with New York
Formal hearing called off as bank reaches settlement with New York regulators, but battle is not over
Investors in Hong Kong cheered news that Standard Chartered bank had reached a settlement with New York financial regulators by sending the British bank's shares higher, in a weaker overall stock market.
The agreement came just a day before the bank was scheduled to defend its operating licence in a formal hearing over allegations it dealt improperly with Iran. That hearing has been called off, but Standard Chartered still faces challenges from other US regulators.
According to the settlement, Standard Chartered will pay a fine of US$340 million, a record for a single US state. It also agreed to install a monitor who will report directly to the New York State Department of Financial Services to track anti-money-laundering compliance.
The bank's share price rose 3.56 per cent, or HK$5.90, to HK$171.70 yesterday in Hong Kong.
Standard Chartered continued to deny a claim by Benjamin Lawsky, New York's superintendent of financial services, that transactions violating sanctions reached at least US$250 billion. A spokeswoman at the bank in Hong Kong said yesterday that nearly all of those disputed transactions were compliant.
The bank previously conceded that some transactions might have been in violation of United States sanctions on Iran, but the amount was less than US$14 million.