UK banks hit by record $2.5B U.S. fines

LONDON. December 11. KAZINFORM HSBC and Standard Chartered, the two biggest UK banks by market value, are to pay more than $2.5bn in fines as part of record settlements with US authorities over money laundering allegations.
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People familiar with the agreement said HSBC is expected to pay $1.9bn and enter a deferred-prosecution agreement to settle accusations it allowed itself to be used by money launderers in Mexico and terrorist financiers in the Middle East.

The settlement is expected to be announced on Tuesday. Prosecutors may exhibit some of the weapons that were connected to the HSBC activities in Mexico, said one person familiar with the matter.

StanChart agreed on Monday to pay $327m to several authorities in the US to settle allegations it violated US sanctions law and impeded government inquiries. That sum comes on top of the $340m the UK bank agreed to pay in August to New York state's Department of Financial Services.

Until the HSBC settlement was reached later in the day, StanChart's total $667m was to be the largest combined penalty paid to US authorities by a financial institution for allegedly breaching sanctions policy.

 

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