BNP Paribas SA’s share price up, Chief Operating Officer de Courcel to depart amid the bank’s sanctions probe in the U.S.

BNP Paribas SA made an official statement on its website, revealing that it Chief Operating Officer Mr. Georges Chodron de Courcel will leave the company at the end of this month. According to the companys statement, Mr. de Courcel is to step down June 30th at his own request. His decision takes place a few months before his initially expected retirement date at the end of September, at a time when the bank is being investigated for alleged transactions with Sudan, Iran and other countries that are subject to U.S. sanctions.

BNP Paribas said in its statement, which was cited by the Wall Street Journal, that Mr. Chodron de Courcel is leaving in order “to continue to fulfill his director roles while complying with the new French banking law, which limits the number of such mandates for bank corporate officers.”

The probe into alleged sanctions violations has been recently escalating, which combined with the departure of one of the banks most senior figures, puts BNP Paribas SA in a hard position. A record criminal penalty is said to be sought by the authorities in the U.S. from the bank over its dealings in some countries. The penalty has been reported to amount to 10 billion dollars.

According to people with knowledge of the process, the talks between the bank and the U.S. regulatory authorities are still in progress, but BNP Paribas may be forced to pay the record penalty and plead guilty in order to put an end to the investigation.

As reported by the Financial Times, Mr. Chodron de Courcel said in the statement posted on Thursday: “I am proud to have contributed to building this outstanding group, which has now become one of the European leaders in its industry. I am convinced that BNP Paribas will be able to play a prominent role in the coming years.”

One of the spokeswomen of BNP Paribas SA – Ms. Julia Boyce – refused to make any comments on any connection between the investigation against the company in the U.S. and the departure of its Chief Operating Officer de Courcel.

BNP Paribas SA added 0.7% to trade at 51.70 euros per share by 9:02 GMT, marking a one year change of +21.49%. According to the information published on the Financial Times, the 27 analysts offering 12-month price targets for BNP Paribas SA have a median target of 63.00, with a high estimate of 69.30 and a low estimate of 43.10. The median estimate represents a 22.71% increase from the last price of 51.34.