The settlement is part of a wider $1.1 billion settlement with federal, state, local, and UK government partners.

Standard Chartered has agreed to pay $639 million in a settlement with the US government over breaching sanctions against a number of countries including Iran, Sudan and Cuba. The breaches took place from June 2009 to June 2014, affecting a total of 9,355 transactions to or via the US. The department said that the settlement is part of a wider $1.1 billion settlement with federal, state, local, and UK government partners.

The settlement was reached with the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The sanctions violations involved Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria, a statement from the US Treasury Department said yesterday. 

The UK-listed bank, which earns the bulk of its earnings in regions such as Asia and Africa, also agreed to settle its potential civil liability for apparent violations of the Zimbabwe Sanctions Regulations. The bank has agreed to remit more than $18 million.

A number of banks, such as France-based BNP Paribas, have fallen foul of US sanctions against regimes such as those of Iran and Sudan. That bank paid a settlement of $8.9 billion to the US in 2014, the largest of its kind, causing strained relations between the US and France. 

Most of the breaches involved Iran-related accounts maintained by Standard Chartered’s Dubai, UAE branches, including accounts at SCB Dubai held for a number of general trading companies, and a petrochemical company. SCB Dubai processed dollar transactions to or through SCB’s branch office in New York or other US financial institutions, the US Treasury’s statement added.