Find 'backbone' to punish Standard Chartered, US senator tells regulator
Source: The Guardian
Find 'backbone' to punish Standard Chartered, US senator tells regulator
Dominic Rushe in New York and Jill Treanor
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 15 August 2012 18.58 BST
A leading US senator has asked other regulators to find the "backbone" to take action against Standard Chartered following the London-based bank's $340m (£220m) settlement in New York over sanctions breaches with Iran.
Carl Levin said on Wednesday that the steps taken by the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) that forced Standard Chartered to agree to the civil penalty showed that it was not necessary to go through years of negotiation.
"The agency also showed that holding a bank accountable for past misconduct doesn't need to take years of negotiation over the size of the penalty; it simply requires a regulator with backbone to act," said Levin, who last month accused HSBC of a "pervasively polluted" culture in laundering money for drug cartels and terrorists in a gruelling public hearing.
Standard Chartered's share price rose on the FTSE 100 on Wednesday even as the bank attempted to broker a settlement with other regulators. It could face further fines from the US justice department and the US treasury, which are both investigating sanctions breaches that allegedly took place between 2001 and 2007. Settlements could come as soon as next week.
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