BNP Paribas SA’s share price up, board approves an 8.9-billion-dollar settlement, wins a reprieve to prepare for a ban

According to a person familiar with the situation, during the final negotiations over a criminal probe into U.S. sanctions violations, BNP Paribas SA, which is currently the largest bank by market capitalization in France, managed to get an abatement from regulators. The bank received half a year to prepare for a ban on managing certain dollar transactions.

As reported by Bloomberg, Mr. Jean-Laurent Bonnafe, BNP Paribas SAs Chief Executive Officer, wrote in a report on June 28th: “I want to say clearly: We will be sanctioned heavily.”

The settlement between the U.S. authorities and BNP Paribas SA have proceeded after the executives of the French bank visited New York in order to confess that the bank has been taking part into potentially illicit money transactions with countries which had been included in Washingtons blacklist.

The settlement between BNP Paribas SA and the U.S. authorities amounts to a record of 8.9 billion dollars and is expected to be officially announced on Monday. The bank had reached an agreement of a concession with U.S. authorities, which are considering to impose a rare suspension for twelve months on BNP. According to people close to the process, the U.S. authorities have agreed to postpone the beginning of the suspension period by six months, which is supposed to give the French bank the opportunity to make alternative arrangements for its clients.

BNP Paribas is expected to confess its guilt today in Manhattan federal court and by pleading guilty to put an end to years of investigation. The lender is also to accept the penalty for breaching the U.S. sanctions against some countries.

The U.S. regulator authorities first found out about any eventual violations of the bank around 2007, when the investigation against BNP Paribas started. About twelve months later, a separate investigation was carried out by the French bank.

BNP Paribas SA added 0.75% to trade at 49.78 euros per share in Paris at 7:34 GMT, marking a one year change of +18.59%. The lender is valued at 61.52 billion euros. According to the Financial Times, the 27 analysts offering 12-month price targets for BNP Paribas SA have a median target of 62.00 euros, with a high estimate of 69.30 euros and a low estimate of 43.10 euros. The median estimate represents a 25.48% increase from the last price of 49.41 euros.