French Officials Twist U.S. Arms in Bank Inquiry
The French campaign has focused largely on the concern that BNP, unlike other big banks accused of doing business with Sudan and Iran, might be forced to suspend a core business operation in New York as a result of the guilty plea. French officials have complained that such a penalty, proposed by New York State’s top financial regulator, Benjamin M. Lawsky, could erode some of the bank’s bottom line.
.. French officials are hardly the first foreign leaders to lean on the Justice Department — Credit Suisse recently dispatched the Swiss finance minister to Washington on the eve of the bank’s pleading guilty to enabling tax evasion — but the effort has coincided with an unusual public outcry in France. One French official recently complained that “the United States can’t treat its allies like this.”
.. For BNP, a bank deemed too big to fail in France, the French officials warned that such a huge settlement could eat into the bank’s capital, according to the people briefed on the matter. The bank’s capital levels, the officials complained, could drop below an important threshold for financial strength.