BNP Paribas has, reportedly, agreed to pay US$8.9 billion penalty for allegedly violating US sanctions rules against countries such as Iran, Cuba and Sudan, mostly between 2002 and 2009.
The French banking giant will also admit guilt. The compromise would enable the bank avoid a trial, in which the bank could have also possibly lost its license to operate in the US.
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BNP may be suspended from dollar-clearing operations for as long as a year. Also, the bank’s oil and gas unit is among those that face the suspension.
The fines are expected to cover both civil and criminal wrongdoing, with the latter to include transactions involving Sudan’s huge oil holdings.
The agreement is expected to be announced today after markets close at the New York Stock Exchange.
San Francisco’s Bank of the West of which BNP is the parent company will not be affected by the deal.
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By GlobalDataBNP Paribas will be the second major European bank to plead guilty in 2014. Credit Suisse agreed to pay US$2.6 billion, the largest penalty in an offshore tax case, in May.
Also, HSBC and Standard Chartered were fined EUR1.36 billion and EUR483 million respectively and the Netherlands’ ING EUR446 million.
