Standard Chartered expects to pay an additional $330 million to settle claims with US regulators, after agreeing earlier this year to pay New York state’s regulator $340 million over claims that it had schemed to hide up to $250 million of transactions with Iran.
It remains in “active and constructive” discussions with the regulatory agencies, and expected the discussions to conclude very shortly. The $330-million payment would settle all remaining claims against the bank by US regulators over the Iran issue.
As a result of the payment to New York State, growth of profit before tax will be dampened, rising at a mid single digit rather than double-digit rate, the bank said in a trading update on Thursday morning.
In an interim management statement in October, the bank had warned that weakness of Asian currencies would drag on its income. While the impact of that weakness was falling, income was still expected to rise by below 10 percent, rather than the double-digit rate at which it would have on a constant currency basis.
The bank also reiterated that it remained watchful of the quality of assets in India, along side West Asia, as loan impairments in the second half of the year fell below the first half, though impairment rates are expected to have grown by a double digit rate overall for the year.
The bank has not disclosed figures for the rate of income growth it expects to see in India for the year, though said that it expected to see double-digit income growth in Malaysia, China and Indonesia, as well as the Americans, UK and Europe, as well as Africa. Hong Kong will see income rise at a high single digit rate.
“We continue to see significant opportunities across our markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East,” said Chief Executive Peter Sands.