Standard Chartered hit with huge fines over financial crime issues

Standard Chartered has been fined more than £800 million by UK and US authorities over its compliance and financial crime controls.

The bank will pay 947 million US dollars (£725.2 million) to US agencies and £102 million to Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The latter amount is the second largest penalty for an anti-money laundering (AML) breach in the history of the FCA.

The FCA found “serious and sustained shortcomings” in Standard Chartered’s AML controls relating to customer due diligence and monitoring.

It marks the resolution of a number of investigations into Standard Chartered’s violations, all of which pre-dated 2014.

Bill Winters, the bank’s chief executive, said: “The circumstances that led to today’s resolutions are completely unacceptable and not representative of the Standard Chartered I am proud to lead today.

“Fighting financial crime is central to what we do and who we are; we do not tolerate misconduct or lax controls and we will continue to root out any issues that threaten the trust we have built over more than 160 years.”

As part of the process, Standard Chartered has already taken a 900 million US dollar (£689.2 million) hit to its 2018 financial results.

It will also take a further charge of 190 million dollars (£145.5 million) in the first quarter of 2019.

Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Standard Chartered is working to improve its AML controls to ensure all issues are fully addressed on a global basis.

“The FCA has taken into account Standard Chartered’s remediation work and its cooperation in assisting the FCA investigation, without which today’s financial penalty would have been even higher.”