French Finance minister Michel Sapin has spoken out against the possible $10bn fine the United States require from bank BNP Paribas over alleged sanctions-violating, describing it as "inequitable".
He criticised what he said was a disproportionate fine, but also clarified that it was neither "possible nor acceptable for [France] to intervene in the justice proceedings".
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"Whether it’s a French bank or a European bank, we don’t want American justice conducted in an inequitable way. The amount we’ve seen in the press, from our point of view, is inequitable," he said.
The US authorities have been investigating BNP Paribas for years to assess if it evaded US sanctions relating to blacklisted countries between 2002 and 2009.
They allege the lender allowed transactions through the US financial system involving countries such as Iran and Sudan.
Sapin continued: "Every time a fine of this nature is imposed, if it’s disproportionate to the facts, for whatever bank it is, it has consequences for the bank and for its capacity to lend."
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By GlobalDataBNP Paribas stated that it was in discussions with US authorities on "certain dollar payments involving countries, persons and entities that could have been subject to economic sanctions".
Last month, the bank announced it had improved control processes to ensure such mistakes did not occur again.
In April, it stated it had already set aside 1.1bn ($1.5bn) to cover the cost of the violations. At the time, the institution published a document:
"A high degree of uncertainty exists as to the nature and amount of penalties that the US authorities could impose on the bank following completion of the ongoing process.
"There is the possibility that the amount of the fines could be far in excess of the amount of the provision."
If approved, and if BNP admits to criminal wrongdoing, the settlement would be the largest criminal penalty in US history, surpassing oil giant BP’s $4bn agreement with the US Department of Justice in 2012.
In May, Swiss bank Credit Suisse agreed to a $2.6bn penalty and admitted criminal wrongdoing in helping "tax cheats" avoid paying US taxes.
