The venues for the 2022 Games in Beijing will be able to use the e-CNY app there. Though other penalties against Commerzbank have not yet been determined, one source said they were not expected to be severe and might include installing an independent monitor at the bank.China's central bank previously stated its intention to make the digital yuan available to visitors to the Beijing Winter Olympics. US authorities have found that the bank stripped identifying information from incoming wires to avoid red flags that would have helped regulators police the transactions.Ĭommerzbank, which is 17% owned by the German government, is expected to enter into a deferred prosecution agreement that would suspend criminal charges in exchange for the financial penalty and other concessions, the sources said. The US inquiry into Commerzbank's activities began in 2010. That is because until 2008, US law allowed Iranian transactions that originated and ended outside the United States, even if they were cleared through a US bank. Violations involving Iranian entities can lead to lower penalties than sanctions against other countries such as Sudan. Like Standard Chartered, many of Commerzbank's transactions involved Iran, according to one source. One source said the number, volume and type of suspicious transactions at Commerzbank are in the same ballpark as those in the Standard Chartered case. They forfeited more than $12bn, according to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.įor example, Standard Chartere, which was accused of hiding 59 000 Iranian transactions worth $250bn from regulators, paid $667m to US authorities in 2012. Over the past five years, more than half a dozen foreign banks have settled with authorities over sanctions violations.

German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung later reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that Commerzbank had fired staff in Hamburg 'some time ago' for having concealed dealings with customers in countries such as Iran and Sudan.Ĭommerzbank could not immediately be reached for comment on the newspaper report on Thursday evening in Germany. The other authorities could not immediately be reached for comment. The Justice Department, Manhattan DA's office and the New York Department of Financial Services declined to comment.

The source said Commerzbank was alleged to have done business with the company despite knowing that it was sanctioned.Ī Commerzbank representative declined to comment on the allegations and the size of any settlement.Ī settlement could be reached in the next few weeks, one source said. The state-sponsored shipping company was designated for economic sanctions by the United States in 2008 for allegedly supporting Iran's proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

'But breaking it down per share, the market may have over reacted.'Ĭommerzbank is expected to post a pre-tax profit of €1bn this year, according to estimates compiled by Thomson Reuters Starmine.Īdditional litigation costs of €300m translate to charges of €0.26 per share, while Commerzbank's shares have lost €0.77 since the start of the week.Ĭommerzbank shares closed down 2.04% on Thursday, underperforming the European banking sector, which was down 1.65%.Īmong the violations being investigated are Commerzbank's transactions for the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, one of the sources said. 'An additional cost of 300 million euros would be a lot compared to Commerzbank's expected 2014 earnings,' Metzler analyst Guido Hoymann said. US authorities are also investigating Italy's UniCredit SpA, France's Credit Agricole SA and Societe Generale, and Germany's Deutsche Bank AG for sanctions violations, sources said.Īnalysts expect that Commerzbank will have to book charges of up to €300m ($409m) as a fine of $800m would be about twice as much as the lender is estimated to have set aside for Iran.Ĭommerzbank had €934m at the end of 2013 as provision for litigation risks, including the US investigation.

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