Evening Standard: Barclays today took a near £200 million hit for busting sanctions against Iran imposed by the United States between 2002 and 2007.
Evening Standard
Nick Goodway Nick Goodway
Barclays today took a near £200 million hit for busting sanctions against Iran imposed by the United States between 2002 and 2007.
In a brief statement on “Head Office Functions and Other Operations”, the bank stated that it had made “a provision of £194 million in relation to the possible resolution of Barclays compliance with US economic sanctions”.
Chief executive John Varley refused to be drawn any further.
He said: “We have made that full disclosure but we cannot go into any more detail about it.”
Barclays’ decision comes more than a year after Lloyds and eight months after Credit Suisse both decided to settle with Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and the US government over allegations that they allowed Iran and other countries covered by sanctions to make illegal money transfers.
Lloyds paid the US authorities $350 million (£220 million) in January last year to settle the case against it that it had helped clients dodge sanctions against Iran, Sudan and Libya between 1995 and 2007.
Credit Suisse followed suit in August, paying a total of $536 million after agreeing a deal with the US Office of Foreign Asset Control.
Barclays refused to say whether it had reached any agreement with the American authorities. It pointed out it had co-operated with US investigators and had also launched its own internal review in 2007.
Royal Bank of Scotland has also been drawn into the American investigation following its ill-fated takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007.
A total of 10 non-US banks were originally under investigation for financial sanctions busting.
