08 August 2012 6:50am

Standard Chartered is wrangling with the New York state financial regulator over a finding – which may lead to sanctions – that for 10 years it "schemed with the government of Iran and hid from regulators roughly 60,000 secret transactions, involving at least US$250 billion, and reaping [the bank] hundreds of millions of dollars in fees."

Standard Chartered for its part contends that the transactions in dispute comprise no more than US$14 million in payments, that it voluntarily reported the issue to US regulators in 2010 and voiced surprise at the actions of the state (rather than...