Iran regulatory fallout rocks Standard Chartered

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/11/us-standardchartered-iran-idUSBRE87A0E920120811

It was in October 2006 that a senior executive at Standard Chartered in New York pressed the alarm bell over the bank's dealings with Iranian customers.

Realizing the bank was being too slow to react to regulators' concerns that the transactions might break U.S. sanctions against Iran, Ray Ferguson, then head of Standard Chartered Americas, fired off an email warning of potentially "catastrophic reputational damage".

While regulators have revealed some details of what led to Ferguson's email and the shockwaves it caused, Reuters has now identified executives central to the affair, how they responded, and established that between 50 and 100 people at the bank have been questioned in internal probes of the alleged transgressions.

Ferguson, now the bank's Singapore CEO, sent his email to Richard Meddings, at the time executive director for risk at the Asia-focused bank's London headquarters and now chief financial officer.

Days later, Meddings arrived in New York and a heated conversation took place among senior Standard Chartered executives. In the room were Meddings, Michael McVicker, head of U.S. compliance, Ferguson, and another New York-based employee.

According to New York State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky, Meddings demonstrated Standard Chartered's "obvious contempt" for U.S. banking regulations.

"WHO ARE YOU TO TELL US?"

In an order published on Monday, the New York regulator quoted the bank's New York branch officer - identified to Reuters as McVicker - as saying Meddings had replied to concerns about Iran by saying: "You f---ing Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we're not going to deal with Iranians."