The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Standard Chartered

  • Standard Chartered to pay fresh penalty

    Standard Chartered has agreed to pay $300million (£180million) to New York’s top banking regulator for failing to improve its money laundering controls.
    The British bank has also been banned from accepting new dollar clearing accounts without the state’s approval.
    The penalty comes after the bank failed to fix problems identified in 2012.
    “If a bank fails to live up to its commitments, there should be consequences,” the New York State Department’s Benjamin M Lawsky said.
    Standard Chartered said it “accepted” the findings of the New York State Department of Financial Services.
    “We are continuing the remediation of our AML (anti-money laundering) control issues with the utmost urgency, in addition to improving our compliance programmes generally,” it added.
    It said a “small proportion” of its clients would be affected by the suspension of dollar clearing for high risk retail clients at its Hong Kong unit, and the banning of high-risk client relationships in the United Arab Emirates.
    Independent financial analyst Francis Lun told the news agency AFP the fine would have a negative impact on the bank’s reputation and international business.
    “It’s really an oversight on the part of Standard Chartered. They’d already paid a huge penalty [and] still installed a system that is useless,” Mr Lun said.
    “It will create tremendous problems with their international clients who cannot settle their accounts in US dollars. It will be a serious blow to Standard Chartered group’s international business,” he added.

     

  • Standard Chartered Bank backs gas turbine

    Standard Chartered Bank of Nigeria has facilitated a $1 billion 450 Megawatt gas turbine Independent Power Plant to be sited in Edo state.
    The plant is the first foreign private investor-led Independent Power Plant (IPP) in the country and it is projected to add 450 megawatts to the national grid at first phase and peak at 1,500 megawatts at the project’s final completion.
    Speaking on her bank’s role in financing the project during the signing of the key industry contracts and confirmation on the debt financing agreement, Standard Chartered Bank’s Managing Director, Mrs Bola Adesola, described it as an innovative project undertaken by private investors to properly position the Nigerian economy on the path of sustainable development.
    Adesola expressed optimism that the Azura Power Plant would serve as a template from which other investors could learn from and invest in the power sector in Nigeria.
    According to her, the bank’s  advisory, structuring and financial contribution to this transaction forms part of its  $2 billion pledge to President Obama’s ‘Power Africa’ campaign launched last year, which aims to bring electricity to more than 20 million Afrcias within five years.
    Adesola said her bank is about to exceed its USD2 billion target well ahead of time, which is more than 20 per cent of the total private sector commitment.
    The US$750 million transaction is the first of a new wave of project-financed greenfield IPPs currently being developed in Nigeria. The financing of the Azura-Edo IPP involves US$220 million of equity and US$530 million of debt from a consortium of local and international financiers.