Brussels, 01/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 1 July, the European Commission took note of the heavy fines levied by the US justice system on French bank BNP Paribas for breaking the trade embargos on countries like Iran and Cuba (see EUROPE 11095).
Chantal Hugues, a spokeswoman for EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier, said that the fines are exceptionally high and match the exceptional nature of the infringements. She said the bank, the biggest bank in the eurozone, had pleaded guilty and the French bank supervisory body said that BNP Paribas would be able to pay the fine without state aid.
BNP Paribas was fined €6.5 billion and banned from carrying out certain transactions in US dollars in 2015, but its US banking licence has not been withdrawn.
Quizzed about the case in an interview with Der Spiegel on Monday, the chair of the bank supervisory board, Danièle Nouy of France, said that the risks surrounding the court case in the US had been taken into consideration when assessing BNP Paribas's strength in the current tests of eurozone banks being carried out by the European Central Bank and the European Banking Authority. (MB)