VOA慢速英语2012 Economics Report - British Banks Pays $340 Million Fine for Iran Dealings（在线收听）

Economics Report - British Banks Pays $340 Million Fine for Iran Dealings

经济报道 - 渣打银行因洗钱指控被罚3.4亿美元

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语经济报道。

The British bank Standard Chartered agreed this week to pay three hundred forty million dollars to a United States financial regulator. The agreement is designed to settle charges that the bank illegally hid financial business with Iranian interests. The wording of the agreement notes that the financial business in question amounted to at least two hundred fifty billion dollars.

英国渣打银行本周同意向一家美国金融监管机构支付3.4亿美元（的罚款）。该协议旨在解决渣打银行非法隐藏与伊朗利益相关金融业务的指控。这份协议中的措辞指出，存在问题的金融业务总额至少为2500亿美元。

Standard Chartered said it "strongly rejects" the charges. The bank said it will fight efforts to withdraw its license to do business in New York, an important financial center.

渣打银行对这一指控表示强烈反对。该银行表示将抗争吊销其纽约业务牌照的行动。纽约是一个重要的金融中心。

Standard Chartered is Britain’s fifth largest bank. New York state’s top bank regulator accused the bank of being a "rogue institution" from two thousand one to twenty ten.

渣打银行是英国第五大银行。纽约州最高银行监管机构指控该银行2001年到2010年期间是一家“流氓金融机构”。

The regulator said the bank made hundreds of millions of dollars in fees from about sixty thousand financial exchanges with Iranian financial institutions. The reported exchanges were made through the bank’s New York offices.

监管机构表示，渣打银行通过与伊朗金融机构进行的约6万笔金融交易中，获取了数亿美元佣金。这些交易都是通过渣打银行纽约办事处进行的。

One official said the dealings exposed the United States banking system to terrorists, illegal drug traffickers and rogue states. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation is carrying out a criminal investigation. Other United States regulators also have opened their own investigations and are not part of the settlement.

一名官员表示，这些交易将美国银行系统暴露给了恐怖分子、非法毒贩和流氓国家。美国联邦调查局正在进行刑事调查。其它美国监管机构也展开了自己的调查，而这些调查并非这次和解协议的一部分。

United States law has tightly controlled financial dealings with Iran since nineteen seventy-nine. That year, fifty-two Americans were taken hostage in Tehran for four hundred forty-four days. But western concerns about Iran’s possible nuclear program are central to the case.

从1979年起，美国法律严密控制与伊朗的金融交易。这一年，52名美国人在德黑兰被挟持444天。但西方国家对伊朗潜在核计划的担忧是这起案子的核心。

Bank expert Bert Ely told VOA that the investigation is part of an effort by several Western countries to limit Iran’s nuclear program. They accuse Iran of trying to develop a nuclear weapon.

银行专家伯特·埃利（Bert Ely）对美国之音表示，这些调查是几个西方国家限制伊朗核计划的行动的一部分。这些国家指控伊朗试图发展核武器。

BERT ELY: “Enforcement of the bank secrecy act and the money-laundering laws are just an on-going effort by the financial regulators to again choke off cash flows to Iran as much as possible and make it as difficult as possible for Iran to sell its oil internationally, but also to buy equipment and parts needed for its nuclear enrichment activities.”

埃利：“执行银行保密法和反洗钱法只是金融监管机构尽可能再次切断伊朗现金流的一项持续努力，不但要使伊朗在国际上销售石油尽可能更难，还包括购买铀浓缩活动所需的设备和零件。”

Standard Chartered is not the only British bank that has faced fines recently. Barclays agreed to pay fines of about four hundred fifty million dollars to American and British officials in July.

渣打银行不是最近面临罚款的唯一一家英国银行。巴克莱银行7月份同意向美国和英国有关部门支付4.5亿美元罚款。

Barclays is one of eighteen banks that set an important measure of borrowing costs for banks, the London Interbank Offering Rate, or LIBOR. Officials said Barclays lied to them about its interest costs. This made the bank appear stronger than it was. But LIBOR is used to set many interest rates paid by millions of people around the world.

巴克莱银行是设定伦敦银行同业拆息的18家银行之一。有关官员称，巴克莱银行在其利息成本上对他们说谎，这使得该银行看上去比它本来更强大。但伦敦银行同业拆息被用于制定世界各地数百万人需要支付的利率。

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I’m Mario Ritter.