New York state’s financial watchdog accused Standard Chartered of hiding $250bn of transactions with the Iranian government, leaving “the US financial system vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes”.
The UK-based bank’s shares fell more than 6 per cent after the New York state Department of Financial Services issued an order just before the London market closed, which included a threat to revoke the bank’s licence to operate in the state calling it a “rogue institution”.
The order said that between 2001 and 2010 Standard Chartered concealed from US authorities about 60,000 transactions for Iranian clients, amounting to about $250bn and generating “hundreds of millions of dollars” in fees for the bank. Among the Iranian clients were the Central Bank of Iran and two state-owned institutions, Bank Saderat and Bank Melli.