After HSBC, Standard Chartered fined a record US$61 million by UK regulators

The fine is the highest ever imposed by the Prudential Regulatory Authority. An original fine of £66.5 million was reduced after the bank agreed to resolve the matter

On Friday, HSBC Holdings was fined £63.95 million by another British regulator

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Standard Chartered is headquartered in London but it generates much of its revenue in Asia. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 8:30pm, 20 Dec 2021

The United Kingdom unit of Standard Chartered Bank has been fined a record £46.55 million (US$61.48 million) by the country’s financial regulator for internal controls and reporting failures in 2018 and 2019.

The fine, the highest ever imposed by the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA), which is part of the Bank of England, is 30 per cent lower than an original fine of £66.5 million, which was reduced after the bank agreed to resolve the matter.

“Standard Chartered’s systems, controls and oversight fell significantly below the standards we expect of a systemically important bank, and this is reflected in the size of fine in this case,” said Sam Woods, deputy governor for prudential regulation and CEO of the PRA.

The bank’s UK unit had US$408 billion in total assets as of the end of last year. It is classified by the PRA as a Category 1 firm, which means that it has the capacity to cause significant disruption to the UK financial system if it were to fail.

Standard Chartered, which is designated as a global systemically important bank as well, is also one of Hong Kong’s three currency issuers. While it is headquartered in London, it generates much of its revenue in Asia.

The PRA, which was set up in 2013 to supervise the UK’s about 1,500 banks and insurance companies, said Standard Chartered made five errors in reporting its US dollar liquidity outflows between March 2018 and May 2019. As a result, the regulator did not have reliable information about its position.