Standard Chartered fined $61m for reporting lapses

Bloomberg

The UK’s top banking supervisor has handed out a record fine to Standard Chartered Plc for failures in its regulatory
reporting and controls.
The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulatory Authority imposed a 46.6 million pound ($61 million) penalty on the lender for five reporting errors between March 2018 and May 2019, according to a statement. That was compounded in one case by Standard Chartered only notifying the PRA of a miscalculation after a four-month internal investigation.
“We expect firms to notify us promptly of any material issues with their regulatory reporting, which Standard Chartered failed to do in this case,” said Sam Woods, chief executive officer of the PRA, in the statement. “Standard Chartered’s systems, controls and oversight fell significantly below the standards we expect of a systemically important bank, and this is reflected in the size of the fine in this case.”
The lapses meant the PRA didn’t have a reliable overview of the bank’s US dollar liquidity position. The investigation found that internal controls and governance arrangements underpinning the lender’s regulatory reporting in relation to the liquidity metric weren’t implemented or operating effectively.
Standard Chartered agreed to resolve this matter and therefore qualified for a 30% reduction in the fine, according to the statement. The bank said in a statement that it “cooperated proactively and fully” with the investigation and accepts the PRA’s findings.
The amount is the highest ever fine in a PRA-only enforcement case and comes after the Financial Conduct Authority fined NatWest Group Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc for anti-money laundering failings. The FCA is making a concerted effort to enforce money laundering regulations more forcefully.