French bank fined $8.6M over Syria sanctions violations

French lender Union de Banques Arabes et Françaises SA agreed to pay an $8.6 million fine imposed by the U.S. Treasury Department to settle its potential civil liability for apparent violations of U.S. sanctions against Syria.

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said Jan. 4 that the Paris-based bank processed payments for sanctioned Syrian financial institutions, with most of its violations related to its processing of internal transfers on behalf on Syrian entities that were followed by corresponding funds transfers through a U.S. bank.

The lender processed 127 transactions totaling roughly $2.08 billion between August 2011 and April 2013, in apparent breach of an executive order that significantly expanded U.S. sanctions against Syria, OFAC said, noting that the violation demonstrated the bank's "reckless disregard" for U.S. sanctions compliance obligations.

OFAC said the settlement amount reflects several mitigating factors that it considered under its enforcement guidelines, including the bank's voluntary disclosure of the violations and its efforts to improve its sanctions compliance program.