BNP Paribas chairman quits in aftermath of major US fine

The chairman of BNP Paribas has stepped down as the France’s largest bank tries to recover from a record $8.9 billion fine nearly three months ago for violating US sanctions.

A BNP Paribas sign. DR

Baudoin Prot, 63, who has headed the bank since 2011, will leave on 1 December after more than three decades with BNP Paribas for “personal reasons”, according to the bank in a statement after a board meeting late Friday.

His departure was widely expected and was first reported by a source close to the matter on Tuesday.

Jean Lemmiere, 64, a former head of the European Bank or Reconstruction and Development and a key player in negotiating BNP Paribas’s settlement with US authorities, is to replace Prot.

The announcement comes almost three months after the French bank pleaded guilty to US criminal charges of defying sanctions on Iran, Sudan and other countries that were in place because of terrorism and human rights violations.

Many of the transactions occurred while Prot was in his previous post as chief executive of BNP from 2003 to 2011.

While Prot has been credited with guiding the bank through the global financial crisis, his legacy will ultimately be overshadowed by the criminal case brought against the bank by prosecutors and regulators in Washington and New York.

The bank was accused of deliberately hiding thousands of transactions with Iran, Sudan, Myanmar and Cuba.

BNP Paribas agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiring to violate sanctions.

Prot was not personally questioned by US authorities during the investigations but the case had an immense impact on the chairman, according to sources close with the bank.