Standard Chartered will be barred from processing transactions for some high-risk clients as part of a $300m settlement with New York’s banking regulator after it failed to improve procedures for identifying suspicious activity.
As part of the agreement with New York’s Department of Financial Services, StanChart will suspend clearing activity for high-risk Hong Kong business clients and exit certain client relationships at its branches in the United Arab Emirates. The UK bank will also not be allowed to accept new customers for dollar-clearing without approval from DFS.
The bank said last night that the deal would affect a limited number of clients: “The group accepts responsibility for and regrets the deficiencies in the anti-money laundering transaction surveillance system at its New York branch. The group has already begun extensive remediation efforts and is committed to completing these with utmost urgency.”