The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has imposed a monetary penalty of $300m against the British lender Standard Chartered for poor controls on money laundering practices.
The regulator has also restricted the bank’s dollar-clearing business from high-risk clients in Hong Kong and ordered to exit certain relationships with certain customers from its US offices.
Under the terms of the settlement, the UK lender has also agreed not to accept new dollar-clearing clients or accounts across its operations without prior approval from DFS and implement other remedial measures.
The department accused the bank for failing to fix problems identified in 2012, including not flagging a large number of potentially high-risk transactions for further review by the bank’s internal controls.
New York financial services superintendent Benjamin Lawsky said: "If a bank fails to live up to its commitments, there should be consequences.
"That is particularly true in an area as serious as anti-money-laundering compliance, which is vital to helping prevent terrorism and vile human rights abuses."
The recent penalty follows a $340m fine paid to the DFS by the bank in 2012 for covering $250bn worth transactions with Iran.