Standard Chartered expects $330mln settlement on Iran

PanARMENIAN.Net - Standard Chartered expects to pay $330 million to settle a case with U.S. regulators who accused the Asia-focused bank of failing to comply with sanctions against Iran, further denting profit growth this year, Reuters reported.

The settlement will be on top of the $340 million it paid to New York's Department of Financial Services in the third quarter, which pushed its before-tax profit growth in 2012 to a mid-single-digit percentage from more than 10 percent, StanChart said in a statement on Thursday, Dec 6.

Any earnings growth would mean a 10th straight year of record profits, as StanChart has ridden on Asia's rise through much of the last decade, allowing it to continue hiring and increasing earnings when much of the industry is shrinking.

"It ain't broke, so they're not fixing it," said Jim Antos, an analyst at Mizuho Securities in Hong Kong. "The thing they are doing is trying to add new businesses, but there isn't a compelling story and that's why their shares haven't moved."

Standard Chartered said it expected talks with U.S. Federal regulators to conclude shortly.

Despite its regulatory woes, the bank is one of the few still hiring in the industry, saying in August it intended to add at least 1,500 more staff in the second half of this year. By contrast, most rivals have been cutting, with Citi saying on Wednesday it was cutting 11,000 jobs.

"We continue to see significant opportunities across our markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East," Chief Executive Peter Sands wrote in a statement released on Thursday.