It’s not odd for regulators to demand independent monitors for companies caught breaking the rules, especially when the rules have to do with illicit financial transactions involving sanctioned countries. But it’s rare to learn that a monitor has found serious new failures—starting the cycle of payment, official contrition and monitoring all over again.
The repeat offender in this case is Standard Chartered, the British bank that paid a combined $667 million to U.S. state and federal regulators two years ago for facilitating transactions related to Iran and potential money laundering. On Tuesday, New York’s Department of Financial Services fined Standard Chartered a fresh $300 million for fudging its promise to better police its sanctions compliance. Standard Chartered also agreed to curtail aspects of its New York banking operations and to submit to expanded oversight, including two more years of independent monitoring.
