Iran allegations "very damaging": StanChart CEO

STANDARDCHARTERED-IRAN-CEO:Iran allegations

Standard Chartered was taken by surprise this week by a U.S. regulator's report accusing it of hiding $250 billion of transactions with Iran, its Chief Executive said on Wednesday, adding the allegations had been "very damaging."

CEO Peter Sands said on a conference call with journalists that an order published Monday by the New York State Department for Financial Services "came as a complete surprise".

Sands said the manner of the DFS announcement was a surprise, and that the regulator gave no prior notice.

He added that the $250 billion figure quoted by the regulator was an estimate of all its so-called U-turn transactions relating to Iran and processed between 2001-07.

 

Sands said the bank's analysis showed that there were 300 transactions that were not valid U-turn transactions in that period, and that the value of those was $14 million.