US authorities in January 2015 to agree with the German Commerzbank to pay a fine of $ 650 million for alleged violations of the sanctions. Its value threatens to increase substantially if the bank was still involved in the machinations of the Japanese Olympus. In this case, it will be $ 1 billion.
German Commerzbank AG is in talks with the US authorities on the payment of fines on charges of money laundering and sanctions-busting. This is with reference to a number of sources, reports The Financial Times.
According to the publication, the total amount inclusive of all charges could exceed $ 1 billion. In this case, the parties are in the final stages of negotiations and may finalize the amount of the fine by January 2015.
After payment of the entire amount of US authorities plan to conclude with Commerzbank special agreement under which the credit institution with the passage of time will be cleared of all charges. However, this condition will be satisfied only if there are no further violations of the law.
According to sources FT, the German bank in September agreed to pay about $ 650 million on charges of US Department of Justice and the prosecutor’s office in New York to conduct transactions Iran, Sudan, Cuba and several other countries under US sanctions. In this case, the basis for making an accusation was the use of its American units for direct transfer of money.
However, according to Reuters, the final amount will be confirmed only after verification of involvement in the scandal around the Commerzbank the company Olympus.
The Japanese manufacturer of photo and medical equipment in 2011 was accused of forging long-term financial results and concealing investment losses of more than $ 1.7 billion. At the same time prosecutors in Manhattan test recently discovered that Commerzbank made for Olympus transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Sources Reuters believe that in the case of involvement in the scandal German bank will be forced to pay a fine of $ 350 million for the lack of internal control of financial resources and money violation of US law in this area.
The official representative of Commerzbank Margarita Thiel declined to comment.
Earlier, Washington initiated a large-scale investigation against a number of European banks have violated US sanctions regime. According to the results in June of this year to a record $ 8.9 billion has already been fined the largest French bank BNP Paribas SA.
Currently under investigation are also other European banks – German Deutsche Bank AG, French Credit Agricole SA and Societe Generale SA, as well as Italian UniCredit SpA.
Note that Commerzbank AG is the second largest bank in Germany and 17% owned by the Government of Germany. However, it remains unclear whether involved in the negotiations with the US authorities German Financial Supervisory Authority.
The net profit of Commerzbank in the III quarter of 2014 increased three times due to the reduction in provisioning for loan losses and an increase in Revenue from core operations. Overall, from July to September this year, net profit was 225 million euros compared to 75 million euros in the same period in 2013.
Earlier, the US Federal Reserve tightened regulation of the banking sector. As a result, Deutsche Bank received a stern warning from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to demand better mechanisms for regulatory reporting.
HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander because of problems with internal controls and models and is not able to pass the stress tests Fed.
Of particular concern financial regulator then is the situation around for insurance debt with leverage (leverage) for debtor companies. Their volumes in 2013 reached a record high of $ 1.14 trillion, up 72% compared with the previous year.
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