By Simon Jessop
LONDON (Reuters) - Standard Chartered has agreed to extend deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) with U.S. authorities over the bank's compliance with sanctions on Iran and other countries.
The DPA deal with the U.S. Department of Justice and New York County District Attorney's office originally agreed in December 2012 will be extended for three years to Dec. 10, 2017, the bank said in a statement.
The deal, initially detailed in documents released in the United States overnight, pushes back any potential prosecution of the company for breaches of U.S. sanctions.
StanChart said the new deal acknowledged the steps taken by the bank to comply with requirements of the first deal, including more rigorous internal policies and procedures, staff training, hiring of compliance staff and blocking of payments for countries subject to sanctions.
In the U.S. documents, the Justice Department had said one reason for the deferral was to investigate "possible historical violations" after 2007 and it needed time to check if they occurred and whether they were willful.
StanChart said it was "co-operating with an ongoing US sanctions-related investigation, but that additional time was needed to complete the investigation and determine whether any violations have occurred".
(Reporting by Simon Jessop; editing by David Clarke)
