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French banking giant BNP Paribas shed a top executive today in its fight against massive impending US penalties for sanctions busting, and more heads look set to roll.
The bank insisted that chief operating officer Georges Chodron de Courcel was taking retirement.
But the sudden decision signals a concession to ward off a massive fine, reported possibly to exceed $10 billion (€7.4 billion).
The announcement is a crucial development, since France has said that the possibility of what it sees as “disproportionate” penalties could upset talks on a vast free-trade pact between the 28-member European Union and United States.
At the beginning of June, various sources told AFP that the bank would sack Chodron de Courcel to placate US authorities.
The New York state banking regulator Benjamin Lawsky called several months ago for him to be dismissed, AFP has learnt.
The US authorities are believed to have claimed the head of another senior executive, a source close to the matter told AFP on Thursday.
He is Vivien Levy-Garboua, formerly in charge of internal controls at the bank’s operations in North America and now an adviser to the management.
Various sources say that Lawsky has demanded that about a dozen bankers should lose their jobs over the incriminated transactions.
The sources said that the bank was believed to have drawn up a list of names in response, but its chairman, Baudouin Prot, was not mentioned even though he had been rumoured to be in the firing line.
In addition to the possible huge fines, the bank may have to suspend dollar transactions in the US, according to US media.
The bank is accused of breaking sanctions against Iran, Sudan and Cuba between 2002 and 2009 by carrying out dollar transactions with them, but such cases are usually the subject of negotiations with US judicial officials.
BNP Paribas, and the French government, now appear to be deep in this process.
Yesterday, the US Treasury Department said that earlier this year US officials had granted BNP Paribas permission to operate in Iran.
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