Banking
BNP Paribas to pay record $8.9 billion in fines
PARIS – French banking giant BNP Paribas is expected to plead guilty to criminal charges and pay a record $8.9 billion in fines to settle accusations it funneled billions of dollars from blacklisted countries through its U.S. operations, said two officials briefed on the matter.
BNP is the parent company of San Francisco’s Bank of the West, which is not expected to be affected by the deal.
The plea could come as early as Monday in the investigation into alleged transfers from individuals and corporations in Sudan, Iran and Cuba in violation of U.S. sanctions, said the officials, who did not want to be identified because the deal with the Department of Justice and other federal and New York state agencies was not final.
Federal and state prosecutors consider the case especially offensive, the officials said, because the financial transactions were enormous and were concealed by falsified records and because numerous bank executives, up to the Paris bank’s chief operating officer, were aware of the transactions.
Bank of the West, the third-largest bank based in California, would be unaffected because the alleged wrongdoing involved the parent company and its branch in New York.
“There’s no evidence Bank of the West was involved,” an official said. “They shouldn’t be impacted.”
Cesaltine Gregorio, a spokeswoman for BNP Paribas, declined to comment.
The bank’s guilty plea will be entered under a 1977 federal law that enables presidents to invoke economic sanctions in response to foreign threats to U.S. security.
The $8.9 billion in fines are expected to cover both civil and criminal wrongdoing, with the latter to include transactions involving Sudan’s huge oil holdings.
The bank disguised the fact that it was processing transactions done in dollars through the U.S. banking system, another official said.
Had the deals been processed in other countries and using other currencies, there would have been no U.S. violations.
As part of the settlement, the top New York state banking regulator, Benjamin Lawsky, is expected to impose at least a six-month restriction on the bank’s ability to perform so-called dollar clearing, a key function for large banks that involves routing international payments.
The payments will not be permitted to be processed through the New York offices where the wrongdoing allegedly occurred.
The bank also will be required to clean house, an official said, firing about a dozen employees involved in the dealings with the blacklisted nations.
BNP Paribas’ chief operating officer, George Chodron de Courcel, already has said he would depart at the end of this month.
The agreement follows a series of smaller settlements with European banks accused of violating U.S. sanctions.
In the highest-profile past case, Britain’s HSBC agreed in 2012 to pay $1.9 billion to settle allegations that it transferred money for regimes regarded as hostile to the United States as well as for drug lords.
But the HSBC settlement drew fire for failing to include criminal charges, as did another case regarded as especially egregious, in which the British bank Standard Charter was fined $300 million for its dealings with Iran.
Compared to those cases, requiring a criminal plea from BNP Paribas is a “sea change,” said William K. Black, a University of Missouri law professor and former senior bank regulator.
Black has criticized the government for its unwillingness to prosecute top bankers for contributing to the economic crisis. Despite the magnitude of the fine and the criminal plea in the BNP case, he noted, the settlement is unrelated to the events leading up to the near-collapse of the global finance system in 2008.
“We still have the record intact,” Black said. “Six years after the crisis, they still have no criminal prosecutions of anybody who contributed to the crisis.”
– LA TIMES
Banking
Millions of customers still stranded worldwide 24 hours after GT Bank online operations suffered attacks
By Yemie ADEOYE
GT Bank, one of Nigeria’s leading banks, with operations across Africa and the United kingdom, and with an asset base of about US$3.11 trillion is under a cyber attack which has left millions of its customers across the world stranded in the last 24 hours.
The bank which was renowned for its seamless online operations at inception has suffered dwindling online efficiency in recent years and this current attack didn’t come as a surprise to many of its numerous customers. However, it is becoming worrisome that over 24 hours after its online operations went down, the bank has not been able to arrest the situation and restore its online services.
Stranded GT Bank customers outside the banks premises
Several customers of the bank took to their X (formerly known as twitter) handles to express their frustrations at the bank, as several of the customers in the diaspora are unable to access their accounts and carry on with their transactions. A customer , Jeff55 who lamented on his X handle about the development, stated that it is a thing of shock that a bank of this size couldn’t afford to have the necessary tools and experts to ensure a full protection of its online operations in this age and time.
Another customer Dimma stated that while Cybersecurity training may seem tedious, the recent #GTBank hack is a stark reminder that everyone is just a click away from a devastating attack.
Several media organisations had reported that hackers have stolen GT Bank website, and intercepted customers Data in massive phishing operation.
At the time of filing this report, Biztellers.com.ng checks on the banks website shows that it is still down and unaccessible, and neither GT Bank media and communications unit nor any of its agencies or surrogates have commented officially on the development.
Says output surge buoyed by reforms he announced in May 2024 to address gaps in PIA
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Sunday declared a resurgence in the oil & gas industry, commending the increased crude production to 1.6 million barrels per day.
The president, who said this in a national broadcast, maintained that the resurgence was buoyed by the reforms he announced in May 2024 to address the gaps in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
Nigeria’s crude oil output got a boost to 1.61 million barrels per day in July 2024 through the president’s directive and the industry leadership provided by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
Acknowledging what he called a resurgence of the once-declining oil and gas industry in his Sunday-morning broadcast to the nation, President Tinubu said that oil investors are coming back to Nigeria.
He said; “Our once-declining oil and gas industry is experiencing a resurgence on the back of the reforms I announced in May 2024 to address the gaps in the Petroleum Industry Act. Last month, we increased our oil production to 1.61 million barrels per day, and our gas assets are receiving the attention they deserve. Investors are coming back, and we have already seen two Foreign Direct Investments signed of over half a billion dollars since then.
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“Fellow Nigerians, we are a country blessed with both oil and gas resources, but we met a country that had been dependent solely on oil-based petrol, neglecting its gas resources to power the economy.
We were also using our hard-earned foreign exchange to pay for and subsidise its use. To address this, we immediately launched our Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (CNG) to power our transportation economy and bring costs down.
This will save over two trillion Naira a month, being used to import PMS and AGO and free up our resources for more investment in healthcare and education.
“To this end, we will be distributing a million kits of extremely low or no cost to commercial vehicles that transport people and goods and who currently consume 80% of the imported PMS and AGO.
“We have started the distribution of conversion kits and the setting up of conversion centres across the country in conjunction with the private sector. We believe that this CNG initiative will reduce transportation costs by approximately 60 per cent and help to curb inflation.”
Plans are in top gear for the 11th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the FBN Holdings Plc.
The management made this disclosure in a notice it filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Thursday, where it averred that it has not been served with any court order against the proposed AGM.
According to notice, which was signed by the acting Company Secretary, Adewale Arogundade, FBN Holding said, “The attention of FBN Holdings Plc (the Company) has been drawn to recent media reports purporting that the Company has received a Court Order stopping it from holding the Annual General Meeting (AGM) scheduled for August 15, 2023.
“We confirm that this assertion is a false narrative as the Company has, as at the date hereof, not been served with any court order to stop the forthcoming AGM.
“Suffice to mention that the AGM is a statutory meeting of Shareholders that must be held in accordance with the law, further to which the Company will notify the regulators and the public as appropriate if there is any lawful order to restrain the Company from conducting same.
“We hereby assure our esteemed Shareholders that the AGM shall hold on August 15, 2023, as planned and we look forward to their attendance and active participation at the meeting.”
However, court orders published in national dailies showed that the Federal High Court in Lagos had issued an order against the financial institution, barring it from holding its 11th AGM.
The order was entered pursuant to a petition by Olusegun Onagoruwa, in suit No: FHC/L/CP/1271/2022. It was addressed to the bank and some other bank officials.
It read, “Take notice that unless you obey the directives in the judicial order contained in the order made on July 15, 2022, by the Federal High Court, Lagos, by refraining from proceeding with the 11th Annual General Meeting of FBN Holdings Limited proposed for August 15, 2023, from seeking approval to issue or raise share capital in any manner whatsoever, from appointing or confirming the appointment of new directors, or in any other manner taking any step towards implementing, actualising enforcing resolution of the 10th Annual General Meeting of FBN Holdings Plc held on June 20, 2022, or in any other manner overreaching, disobeying or undermining the said order of a court, you will be guilty of contempt of court and you will be liable to be committed to prison and to there imprisoned.”
Biztellers brought you a report that a segment of shareholders had staged a protest at the headquarters of the bank on Monday, calling for the AGM to be held, as well as soliciting regulatory interventions.
It is expected that at the AGM, FHN Holdings is poised to breathe life into plans to seek shareholders’ approval to raise N150bn fresh capital via a rights issue and elect new directors including billionaire, Femi Otedola and Samson Ariyibi among other resolutions.
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