Maybe this time, it’ll stick.
British bank Standard Chartered is getting fined for a second time over lapses in its anti-money-laundering controls after promising to do a better job in 2012.
The firm agreed to pay $300 million to settle claims by New York’s top bank regulator that it didn’t have adequate protections against riskier clients in the Middle East and Asia.
The bank had a high number of suspicious transactions coming from Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates, according to Ben Lawsky’s New York Department of Financial Services.
As further punishment, the bank will suspend US dollar clearing — a key financial tool for international banks that want to use the currency — for some of its high-risk clients for an open-ended period of time, according to the order.
This settlement follows a $340 million slap in 2012 from Lawsky’s office over laundering money to entities in Iran.
“If a bank fails to live up to its commitments, there should be consequences,” Lawsky said in a statement on Tuesday.
“That is particularly true in an area as serious as anti-money-laundering compliance, which is vital to helping prevent terrorism and vile human rights abuses.”
The bank will extend the use of a monitor to oversee some of its transactions for another year, according to Lawsky’s office.
Spokespeople for Standard Chartered weren’t immediately available for comment.