Standard Chartered Bank rejected allegations from US regulators that it hid 250 billion USD in transactions with Iranian banks for almost a decade in violation of US sanctions. AFP Photo/Philippe Lopez
The DFS probe found that SCB had assured the New York state in May 2010 that it would take steps to comply with the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions. However, another examination in 2011 found anti money laundering failures.
Among these, the bank was outsourcing its “entire OFAC compliance process for the New York branch to Chennai, with no evidence of any oversight or communication between the Chennai and the New York offices.”
The OFAC is the designated US government agency for preparing list of entities with whom US citizens and entities are barred from doing business.