Standard Chartered PLC (LSE:STAN) has been hit with a £46.5mln fine by The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) for repeatedly misreporting its liquidity position and obscuring the fact.
Five errors were made between May 2018 and May 2019 in reporting a liquidity metric, said the PRA, which meant it was impossible to gain an accurate understanding of the bank’s US dollar liquidity position, leading to the lender becoming temporarily subject to extra liquidity requirements due to concerns about the US dollar outflows.
One of the more severe errors occurred in November 2018, where a spreadsheet entry was reported as positive when a zero or negative value was expected, leading to a £6bn over-reporting in the liquidity position.
“We expect firms to notify us promptly of any material issues with their regulatory reporting, which Standard Chartered failed to do in this case,” said Sam Woods, the chief executive of the PRA.
“Standard Chartered’s systems, controls and oversight fell significantly below the standards we expect of a systemically important bank, and this is reflected in the size of the fine in this case.”
Standard Chartered said in a statement that it “has made significant improvements to and substantial investment in its liquidity and regulatory reporting processes and controls.”