Mess with U.S. laws and we will rough you up. That’s the tune regulators have been singing this year as they’ve aggressively gone after foreign banks that operate in the U.S. but skirt the nation’s laws. Now we’ll get to see how punitive the damages are when it comes to what may be a second offender.
The U.S. Justice Department and two other regulators have announced that they’re reopening their investigations into Standard Chartered and its dealings with sanctioned countries. Specifically, they are looking into whether the U.K. bank hid transactions that breached U.S. sanction laws while simultaneously settling allegations that it breached U.S. sanction laws.
Standard Chartered agreed to pay $667 million back in 2012 and signed a deferred prosecution agreement for its dealings. Now, investigators are eyeing whether they told the whole truth or just the abridged version.
Analysts told the Financial Times that, if found culpable of hiding other transactions, Standard Chartered could see a much bigger fine and be pressured to say goodbye to some senior executives, like what the government did to BNP when it pushed the bank to part ways with more than two dozen employees, including its chief operating officer. And that was for a first offense.
Standard Chartered could also be banned from clearing U.S. dollar transactions, which is a real pain for bankers in the states. The same thing happened to BNP, and they reportedly had to reach out and ask other banks to do their clearing for them. It can be costly and annoying to clients.
The news comes just days after the Standard Chartered reported a 16% decline in third quarter profit, forcing the bank to issue its second warning in five months. Standard Chartered then announced that it would look to make an additional $400 million in cost reductions in 2015, so it may have to make cuts anyway. Needless to say, it was a rough week for the British bank. It’s stock got crushed, too.
Why You Should Quit Your Job and Become a Recruiter (eFinancialCareers)
Recruiting is a tough business where you have to kill what you eat. But if you’re great, you can make a nice life for yourself.
Banking, Tech Or Accounting (eFinancialCareers)
What’s harder to get in to: banking, accounting or technology? Here’s a look at the application-to-hire rate at prominent firms within each industry, along with some starting salary data.
Apparently not everyone is happy about Bank of America’s somewhat surprising decision to offer Chief Executive Brian Moynihan the role of chairman. Three of the largest pension funds in the U.S. are publicly resisting the move, which essentially sidestepped a binding 2009 shareholder resolution to keep the roles separate.
Race Site Tipped J.P. Morgan Off (WSJ)
J.P. Morgan found out it was being hacked after being notified of security issues with its corporate charity race website. The breach may have gone on even longer if a security vendor hadn’t located a cache of stolen email addresses and passwords, some of which were taken from the J.P. Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge website.
Tech Mishap at NYSE (Bloomberg)
Thursday got scary at the New York Stock Exchange. A key piece of infrastructure went down for about 10 minutes and some prices inadvertently went haywire. Some dark pool trading had to be halted.
Win For Suspended Traders (WSJ)
Four former Deutsche Bank traders have inked an out-of-court settlement with their old employer, which suspended the quartet for allegedly conspiring to manipulate interest rates. A court later ruled that they should be reinstated, but Deutsche Bank disagreed, resulting in a fine and whatever they’ll have to pay their former employees in this settlement.
Big Year For Raymond James (Reuters)
Raymond James added a net of 68 U.S.-based advisers in its last fiscal year, its best recruiting performance since 2009. This is impressive considering bulge bracket banks are trying to grow their money management teams but are actually losing headcount due to the dearth of talent and the demand in the market.
Buzz Around the Office
Here’s a new entrant into the World’s Worst Parent competition. Messing with them by wearing medical masks and pretending they have Ebola.
Quote of the Day: “They have flaunted the will of the shareholders… It’s like the board poking their finger in the eye of investors,” pension funds on Bank of America’s decision to appoint CEO Brian Moynihan chairman