Yahoo Finance German Bank Pays $1.45bn Sanctions Settlement
US authorities have announced a $1.45bn (£975m) deal with Commerzbank (Xetra: CBK100 - news) to settle several charges, including the violation of US sanctions against Iran.
The total penalty, announced last night, is close to the settlement agreed by HSBC on similar allegations in 2012.
Commerzbank, which avoids criminal prosecution by the US Justice Department and the New York City district attorney's office under the agreements, was found to have broken sanctions against Iran, Sudan, Burma and Cuba.
Assistant US attorney general Leslie Caldwell said the bank "concealed hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions prohibited by US sanctions laws on behalf of Iranian and Sudanese businesses".
She said Commerzbank did so "even though managers inside the bank raised red flags about its sanctions-violating practices".
The bank admitted the facilitation of money laundering as a result of its activities.
Regulators have put big banks under greater scrutiny since the financial crisis for moving funds through the US financial system from international criminals and on behalf of nations under US sanctions.
Since 2009, Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS - news) , Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) , Lloyds, and ING have all paid big settlements related to allegations that they moved money for individuals or companies on the US sanctions list.
Commerzbank agreed to accept responsibility under its settlement and terminate a number of employees.
The Frankfurt-based bank said in a statement that it had taken steps in recent years to correct the problems and was increasing its staff to boost compliance.
Chief executive Martin Blessing said: "We take these violations very seriously and deeply regret the actions that led to today's announcements.
"We have made, and will continue to make, changes to our systems, training and personnel to address the deficiencies identified by US and New York authorities."
