Reports: BNP Paribas Chairman Baudouin Prot To Resign
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BNP Paribas SA (BNPQY.PK,BNP.L)
Chairman Baudouin Prot has decided to resign, about three months after
the French lender pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a record fine of $8.9
billion for violating U.S. sanctions, according to media reports on
Tuesday.
Prot was chief
executive officer of the BNP Paribas during most of the period in which
U.S. authorities alleged BNP Paribas violated U.S. sanctions.
BNP
Paribas' board is reportedly slated to meet on Friday and confirm
Prot's resignation. Prot, aged 63, is expected to step down effective
December 1. He will likely be succeeded by Jean Lemierre, a senior
advisor to Prot, according to media reports on Tuesday.
Lemierre previously headed the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 2000 to 2008.
BNP
Paribas became the second major European bank to plead guilty in the
U.S. this year. In May, Credit Suisse Group AG (CS) agreed to pay $2.6
billion. Credit Suisse has been the target of a U.S. criminal
investigation since 2011 on tax evading accusations.
BNP
Paribas, in late June,agreed to pay a record fine of $8.9 billion to
U.S. federal and state authorities for conspiring with other entities to
deliberately and repeatedly violate longstanding U.S. sanctions against
Sudan, Cuba, and Iran.
At
the direction of the Department of Financial Services, BNP Paribas cut
ties with 13 of its employees, including Group Chief Operating Officer
George Chodron de Courcel and Stephen Strombelline, Head of Ethics and
Compliance for North America.
In
total, including those terminated, the bank disciplined 45 employees in
connection with the probe, with levels of discipline ranging from
dismissals, to cuts in compensation, demotion and other sanctions.
From
1974 to 1983, Prot was successively the Deputy Prefect of the
Franche-Comté region of France, French General Inspector of Finance, and
the Deputy Director of Energy and Raw Materials of the Ministry of
Industry.
Prot then joined
the Banque Nationale de Paris SA in 1983. After BNP merged with Paribas
in 2000, he was appointed its CEO in 2003. He was the company's CEO from
June 2003 until December 2011, when he became chairman.
BNPQY closed Tuesday's trading at $33.97, down $0.42 or 1.24 percent on a volume of 218,519 shares.
by RTT Staff Writer
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