MOSCOW, July 1 (RIA Novosti) - The French banking giant BNP Paribas has agreed to pay US authorities $8.97 billion in settlements for violating sanctions against several countries, as stated in the company's Tuesday press-release available online.
"We deeply regret the past misconduct that led to this settlement," CEO Jean-Laurent Bonnaffe said, commenting on the sizeable settlement of the pending investigation relating to transactions involving parties subject to US sanctions, as quoted in the press-release.
The company head is certain BNP Paribas will perform well unobstructed by the unprecedented settlement.
"The Group remains focused on implementing its 2014-2016 business development plan. We confirm our ambition to meet the targets of this plan announced in March this year. In particular, North America remains a strategic market for the Group where we plan to further develop our retail, investment solutions and corporate & investment banking franchise over the coming years," the head of the bank concluded.
The bank intends to pay close to 90 percent of the provisioned amount by the end of the second quarter of 2014, according to the statement.
Since late May, US authorities sought settlement from the French BNP Paribas for violating Washington's sanctions against Cuba, Iran and Sudan. Media reports suggested that the bank itself was willing to pay a fine of up to $8 billion, while the US government threatened a 10-billion-dollar fine.
The US has a certain track record of seeking large fines from international banks in similar cases. British banking group HSBC paid $1.9 billion in 2012 to drop the charges of working with the countries under US sanctions. The Swiss bank Credit Suisse pleaded guilty to concealing data on US taxpayers and paid $2.6 billion dollars in settlements.
BNP Paribas was established in 2000 through the merger of Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) and investment bank Paribas, the integrated corporation currently ranks among the six most influential banks in the world.
