By PAUL O’DONOGHUE, Senior Correspondent
STANDARD Chartered has settled a £1.5 billion ($2 billion) investor lawsuit that accused the bank of misleading shareholders about the scale of its sanctions breaches involving Iran.
The parties did not reveal the financial terms of the settlement.
More than 200 claimants representing 1,400 investment funds sued the bank in London. They said Standard Chartered issued misleading statements and omitted key information about its compliance with US sanctions on Iran. The claimants argue that those gaps led them to invest on flawed information and suffer losses.
The two sides settled the case after the Court of Appeal ordered the bank to hand over sensitive documents ahead of a trial set for next October.
The Court of Appeal said: “After a draft of this judgment was circulated to the parties, they reached a settlement of the entire action.”
In a statement, Standard Chartered said: “Notwithstanding that Standard Chartered has always denied any and all liability, a settlement has been reached to bring this matter to a close. The settlement is not material to the Group’s operating results or financial position.”
Signature Litigation, which represents the claimants, did not immediately comment.
In its latest half-year report, Standard Chartered said the claimants alleged that the bank made untrue and misleading statements and left out information about historic sanctions, money-laundering and financial-crime compliance failures.
Standard Chartered paid $1.1 billion to US and UK regulators in 2019 to settle charges that it violated Iran sanctions and ignored warning signs about customers.
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