Deloitte said its financial advisory arm,
which is separate from its audit business, properly performed its
role as independent consultant to Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) in
full compliance with the highest professional standards.
Earlier this week, the New York State
Department of Financial Services (DFS) accused Deloitte of hiding
details about SCB’s transactions with Iranian clients from
regulators.
In statement to the International
Accounting Bulletin, Deloitte said it had no knowledge of any
alleged misconduct by any SCB employees and categorically denies
that it aided in any way any violation of law by the
bank.
Deloitte is alleged to have helped SCB hide
transactions with Iranian clients, worth around $250bn, from
regulators when it was tasked with writing a report on SCB’s
activities.
The firm said it “absolutely did not
delete any reference to certain types of payments from its final
written report”.
“Deloitte did not include in its final written
report a particular recommendation which was included in an earlier
draft. It did so in favour of in-person discussions with
regulators regarding this issue, and it included the facts relating
to this issue in the final written report,” Deloitte said.
Since the New York State DFS accusations
earlier this week, the London-based SCB has lost over a quarter of
its market value and is accused of $250bn worth of money
laundering transactions with Iran. The US watchdog could
withdraw SCB’s operating licence in the state of New York.
