Standard Chartered has reached final settlements with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Department of Justice and the New York County District Attorney’s Office over Iranian historical sanctions compliance and US dollar payment practices primarily between 2001 and 2007.
The bank is to pay $327 million as part of the settlement. The payment is for past violations of sanctions laws and the lack of transparency in connection with certain former payment practices which were terminated in 2007.
OFAC found that “while SCB’s omission of information affected approximately 60,000 payments related to Iran totalling $250 billion, the vast majority of those transactions do not appear to have been violations of the Iranian Transactions Regulations”.
Over the period from 2001 to the end of 2007, it found that approximately $24 million of transactions processed on behalf of Iranian parties and a total of $109 million on behalf other sanctioned entities from other countries (Burma, Sudan and Libya) appeared to be in violation of sanctions laws. Over the same period, SCB New York processed $139 trillion in US dollar payments.
The bank ceased its Iranian USD payments business in late 2006 and in the following year stopped transacting any new business with Iranian entities.
It has subsequently completed a comprehensive review and upgrade of its compliance systems and procedures.