Banking giant in cover-up settlement

The 160-year-old bank saw £6 billion wiped from its value amid claims it exposed the US to terrorists, drug kingpins and weapon dealers.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) had accused it of keeping around 60,000 transactions secret from US regulators over nearly 10 years.

The regulator’s superintendent said a monitor would be installed at the bank for at least two years to evaluate money-laundering controls at its New York branch, and state agency’s examiners will be placed at the bank.

Standard, which employs 2,100 staff in the UK, previously said it “strongly rejects” the portrayal by the DFS, and said its claims were inaccurate, insisting 99.9 per cent of its dealings with Iran complied with regulation.

The bank, which employs nearly 90,000 people worldwide, had been threatened with losing its licence to operate within New York state.

In an explosive legal order, DFS superintendent Benjamin Lawsky had described it as having “operated as a rogue institution”, claiming that between January 2001 and 2010, it conspired with Iranian clients to route payments through New York after stripping information from wire transfer messages used to identify sanctioned countries.