SocGen confronting $1.4bn sanctions payment

On 3 September, French bank SocGen announced that it has made available $1.4 billion to pay a possible sanctions penalty to US regulators, in the light  of an investigation by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury (‘OFAC’), the US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York, the New York County District Attorney’s Office, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the New York State Department of Financial Services ‘regarding certain US dollar transactions processed by Société Générale involving countries that are the subject of US economic sanctions.’

The bank said that it is entering ‘a phase of more active discussions’ with the authorities, with a view to reaching a resolution within weeks. On its website, the bank says that its compliance division ‘was reorganised on 1 January, 2018 and directly reports to the Group’s General Management, thus becoming an independent division in its own right headed by Edouard-Malo Henry, member of the Group’s Management Committee.’