BNP Paribas SA’s share price down, close to 9-billion-dollar sanctions agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice

According to a person with knowledge of the process, BNP Paribas SA is approaching an agreement to plead guilty and pay 8 to 9 billion dollars in an attempt to settle allegations related to an eventual violation of sanctions in the U.S.

The Finance Minister of France – Mr. Michel Sapin did not reveal any details on an eventual deal, but once again shared the position of the French country and its belief that any penalty should be fair and proportionate to the violation. As reported by Reuters, Mr. Sapin said: “The French state, the government … has played its role in telling the Americans: Be careful – by all means punish the past but dont punish the future.”

People close to the negotiations reported that the two parts in the talks reached a general plan for the settlement recently. The official representatives of the two negotiating parties, plan to announce the departure of at least 30 employees of the bank as part of the deal. According to people familiar with the issues, most of those workers have already departed from the bank.

It also became clear that the terms of the agreement are not final, although the two parties have cleared out the broader picture of the settlement. The person close to the talks revealed that the head of the criminal division of the Justice Department – Leslie Caldwell have had some talks with official representatives of BNP Paribas SA on June 20th on the matters of an eventual resolution.

One of the analysts, who work at Hamburger Sparkasse – Mr. Christian Hamann said in a telephone interview for Bloomberg today: “This looks good given some higher numbers had been reported in terms of fines. The problem is the guilty plea. The consequences are unknown.”

Cesaltine Gregorio, who is a spokeswoman of BNP Paribas refused to make any comments on the situation. The spokesman of the Justice Department Mr. Brian Fallon did not immediately return an e-mail when asked for a comment.

BNP Paribas SA lost -1.04% to trade at 50.66 euros per share by 9:34 GMT, marking a one year change of +24.41%. 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 62.00, with a high estimate of 69.30 and a low estimate of 43.10. The median estimate represents a 21.12% increase from the last price of 51.19.