LONDON - John Peace, the chairman of Standard Chartered, was forced to retract statements on Thursday connected to the British bank’s recent settlement with American authorities over violations of sanction laws.
Last year, Standard Chartered, which has large operations in the emerging markets, agreed to a combined $667 million fine as part of a settlement with federal and state authorities, a deal that included a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Authorities claimed that Standard Chartered had illegally processed millions of dollars of dollars of transactions for Iranian and Sudanese clients, and the bank admitted to “falsifying records†and “making false statements.â€
But in a conference call at the bank’s annual earnings report on March 5, Mr. Peace referred to the transactions as “clerical errors,†adding that “we had no willful act to avoid sanctions.â€
In a brief statement on Thursday, Standard Chartered’s chairman retracted his comments, and reiterated the bank’s responsibility for the criminal activity related to the illegal money transactions.
“My statement that Standard Chartered had no willful act to avoid sanctions was wrong,†Mr. Peace said. The comment “directly contradicts Standard Chartered’s acceptance of responsibility.â€
Standard Chartered’s backtracking follows a series of scandals for Britain’s largest financial institutions.
HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, also agreed to a record $1.92 billion fine last year with U.S. authorities to settle similar money laundering allegations. Local rivals Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland have reached settlements worth millions of dollars with both U.S. and British regulators over the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor.
Despite the $667 million fine last year, Standard Chartered reported a $4.8 billion net profit for 2012, a slight rise on the previous year, mostly due to continued growth in fast-growing economies like China and across Africa.
