LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Standard Chartered PLC (SCBFF.PK, STAC.L, STAN.L) said that it has resolved investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice or 'DOJ', the Office of the District Attorney for New York County or 'DANY', the New York State Department of Financial Services or 'DFS', the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority or 'FCA' into its historical sanctions compliance and financial crime controls.
As per the terms of the resolutions, Standard Chartered will pay a total of $947 million in monetary penalties to the U.S. Agencies and 102 million pounds to the FCA.
Standard Chartered said it took a $900 million provision which included these matters in the fourth quarter of 2018 and will take a further and final charge of $190 million in the first quarter of 2019. The Group's deferred prosecution agreements with the DOJ and DANY have been extended to 9 April 2021.
The company noted that the resolutions include no new compliance monitorships and the monitorships previously imposed by the DFS and the DOJ were terminated on 31 December 2018 and 31 March 2019, respectively.
The FCA said it found significant shortcomings in Standard Chartered's own internal assessments of the adequacy of its AML controls, its approach towards identifying and mitigating material money laundering risks and its escalation of money laundering risks. These failings exposed Standard Chartered to the risk of breaching sanctions and increased the risk of Standard Chartered receiving and/or laundering the proceeds of crime.
U.S. Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski said, 'Today's resolution sends a clear message to financial institutions and their employees: if you circumvent U.S. sanctions against rogue states like Iran-or assist those who do-you will pay a steep price. When a global bank processes transactions through the U.S. financial system, its compliance program must be up to the task of detecting and preventing sanctions violations-and when it is not, banks have an obligation to identify, report, and remediate any shortcomings.'
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