Denied

New York State Votes 'No'

London-based Financial Times website reported that New York state's Department Of Financial Services has revoked the ability of the British bank, Standard Chartered, to do business in the state.

The order said that between 2001 and 2010 Standard Chartered concealed from US authorities about 60,000 transactions for Iranian clients, amounting to about $250bn and generating “hundreds of millions of dollars” in fees for the bank.

Among the Iranian clients were the Central Bank of Iran and two state-owned institutions, Bank Saderat and Bank Melli.

The department, led by Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of financial services, alleged that Standard Chartered had falsified records and evaded US sanctions. One Standard and Chartered director allegedly told a colleague: “You f---ing Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we’re not going to deal with Iranians?”

In addition to the bank’s “systematic misconduct” with Iran, the Department said it had evidence that Standard Chartered appeared to have conducted “similar schemes” with Libya, Myanmar and Sudan.

...and in all the scandals and error reported in just the past six months (Peregrine; MF Global; JP Morgan; HSBC; the LIBOR rate-fixing; Knight Financial), no one is really demanding more accountability from the financial and banking sector.

And why is that?

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