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Standard Chartered has come out strongly against the way it has been portrayed by US authorities accusing the London-listed bank of laundering billions for the regime in Iran.

The New York State Department of Financial Services said yesterday that the bank had "schemed with the government of Iran and hid from regulators roughly 60,000 secret transactions, involving at least $250 billion, and reaping SCB hundreds of millions of dollars in fees" for a period of 10 years.

"SCB's actions left the US financial system vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes, and deprived law enforcement investigators of crucial information used to track all manner of criminal activity," the DFS said. "In short, SCB operated as a rogue institution."

The DFS has ordered the bank to appear before it on August 15, saying that its New York banking license is at stake.

Standard Chartered has come out defending itself, saying it "does not believe the order issued by the DFS presents a full and accurate picture of the facts."

"Obvious contempt" for US rules

The US regulator also said that the bank had showed "obvious contempt" for US banking regulations, quoting a group director as having said, regarding Americans: “Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we're not going to deal with Iranians.”

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