BNP Paribas agreement should be announced Monday
The bank should pay $ 8.9 billion fine. The prohibition on dollar transactions would apply in Switzerland and Singapore in particular.
The agreement between the U.S. government and BNP Paribas expected to be announced Monday during a press conference. The French bank is preparing to pay a fine of $ 8.9 billion, says the New York Times in its issue of Friday morning, more than its profits last year. She is accused of violating an economic embargo against Sudan, Iran and Cuba, and is expected to plead guilty - a procedure yet extremely rare on Wall Street. To this add the prohibition to conduct dollar transactions for at least six months. This prohibition does not affect any bank: it applies to its subsidiaries in Singapore and Geneva, as well as certain services to Paris. In cete hypothesis, BNP Paribas will retain access to the dollar, which should reassure customers and prevent them from returning to other banks.
The penalty is severe. It is not very far from the worst case scenario that the American press evoked late May. At this stage, no bank had never paid more than 2 billion fine for violating a U.S. embargo. But fraud detected at BNP Paribas are apparently more serious than any previous. Fraudulent transactions would amount, in total, $ 30 billion. Much was targeted to Sudan, a country plagued by genocide. They allowed essentially to finance oil contracts. BNP Paribas would deliberately concealed these transactions, through its subsidiaries Africa, the Middle East and Europe, which made the final destination - Sudan-less detectable. This desire of concealment which explains why American judges are so intransigent with regard to the French bank.