Lloyds TSB agrees to pay fine of $350m for sanctions help
Lloyds TSB has agreed to pay $350m (£231m) to the US government for helping customers get around American sanctions on dealing with Libya, Sudan and Iran.
By James Quinn in New York and Katherine Griffiths in London
The bank, which the British government will shortly own a 43pc stake in, agreed to settle the claims fine after admitting responsibility for criminal conduct.
The US Department of Justice alleged that dating back to 1995, Lloyds falsified wire transfers involving countries or individuals on the US sanctions list.
In effect, the bank removed customer information so that transfers would pass undetected through sanction-focused filters at US banks, violating US federal law aimed at starving terrorists of money in certain countries.
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said: “The Iranian banks have money on deposit in London with Lloyds. They were having Lloyds send the money to the US and beyond and stripping the identification.”
In a statement, Lloyds TSB noted that it set aside £180m last year pending the settlement, and said that it “does not anticipate any further enforcement actions.”
The British government is set to end up with around 43pc of Lloyds as a result of its agreed merger with HBOS and the Government’s recent banking bail-out, with final details of the stake likely to be announced on Monday morning.
Meanwhile, the finance director of Northern Rock, the mortgage lender which was nationalised by the UK Government in February 2008, is stepping down next month having earned almost £1m for 12 months’ work.
Since joining 11 months ago, Ann Godbehere, the former finance director at Swiss Re, has been earning £75,000 a month. At the time of her appointment, her pay deal, alongside the monthly £90,000 negotiated by Ron Sandler when he became the bank’s executive chairman, prompted an outcry from politicians given it was being kept alive with infusions of taxpayers’ cash.
A replacement for Ms Godbehere has yet to be found.
The Newcastle-based bank will again be in the spotlight next week when a group of shareholders led by hedge funds SRM Global and RAB Capital will challenge the Government on the terms that were used to compensate shareholders when it was nationalised.
Source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/4213151/Lloyds-TSB-agrees-to-pay-fine-of-350m-for-sanctions-help.html