Standard Chartered has agreed a $340m (£217m) settlement with New York regulators that accused it of hiding $250bn of transactions with Iran.

The bank had previously disputed the value of the transactions that broke US sanctions

The hearing that had been scheduled for Wednesday has now been adjourned.

The bank’s chief executive Peter Sands has been in New York negotiating with the regulators.

The bank had admitted that some of its transactions did break US sanctions, but said that the amount totalled just $14m.

“The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) and Standard Chartered Bank have reached an agreement to settle the matter raised in the DFS order dated August 6, 2012,” a statement from the regulator’s superintendent said.

“The parties have agreed that the conduct at issue involved transactions of at least $250bn.”

According to the terms of the settlement, Standard Chartered will pay a “civil penalty” of $340m to the DFS.

It will also install a monitor for at least two years who will evaluate money-laundering controls at the bank’s New York branch and report directly to the regulator.

“In addition, DFS examiners shall be placed on site at the bank,” the statement said.

Finally, the settlement provided for permanent staff at the bank’s New York office to audit any money-laundering controls.

‘Surprise’

Last week, New York’s DFS alleged that the US unit of the bank had illegally hidden 60,000 transactions with Iran worth $250bn over nearly a decade.

It accused the London-based bank of being a “rogue institution” for breaking US sanctions against Iran.

Mr Sands said at the time that he was “completely surprised” by the ferocity of the DFS’s attack, which he described as “disproportionate”.

He did, however, admit that 300 transactions did break US sanctions.

“This was clearly wrong and we are sorry that they happened,” Mr Sands said.

BBC