NEW YORK: US banking regulators ordered Pakistan’s Habib Bank to shutter its New York office after nearly 40 years, for repeatedly failing to heed concerns over possible terrorist financing and money laundering, officials said Thursday.
Habib, Pakistan’s largest private bank, neglected to watch for compliance problems and red flags on transactions that potentially could have promoted terrorism, money laundering or other illicit ends, New York banking officials said.
The state’s Department of Financial Services, which regulates foreign banks, also slapped a $225 million fine on the bank, although that is much smaller than the $629.6 million penalty initially proposed.
Habib has operated in the United States since 1978, and in 2006 was ordered to tighten its oversight of potentially illegal transactions but failed to comply.
New York regulators said Habib facilitated billions of dollars of transactions with a Mideast private bank, which reportedly has links to Al-Qaeda, and failed to do enough to ensure that the funds were not laundered or used for terrorism.
“DFS will not tolerate inadequate risk and compliance functions that open the door to the financing of terrorist activities that pose a grave threat to the people of this State and the financial system as a whole,” DFS Superintendent Maria Vullo said in a news release.
“The bank has repeatedly been given more than sufficient opportunity to correct its glaring deficiencies, yet it has failed to do so.”
Habib permitted at least 13,000 transactions that were not sufficiently screened to ensure they did not involve sanctioned countries, the agency said.
And the bank improperly used a “good guy” list to rubber stamp at least $250 million in transactions, including those by an identified terrorist and an international arms dealer, regulators said.
In an August letter to the Pakistan Stock Exchange, Habib company secretary Nausheen Ahmad called the proposed fine of $629.6 million “outrageous” and “capricious” and said the bank had decided to close its New York operations “in an orderly manner.”
But DFS said Habib will have to surrender its license after it meets the agency’s requirements.
“DFS will not stand by and let Habib Bank sneak out of the United States,” Vullo said.
US shuts down Pakistani bank over terror-financing and money laundering concerns
US shuts down Pakistani bank over terror-financing and money laundering concerns
Indian farmers, unions strike against new trade deal with US
- India agreed to eliminate or reduce tariffs on US industrial goods, wide range of farm, food products
- Commerce minister says farmers will not suffer ‘any harm’ as deal is ‘fair, equitable, and balanced’
NEW DELHI: Indian farmers took part in nationwide trade union protests on Thursday, saying they fear the implications of New Delhi’s new trade pact with the US, which will result in American products gaining duty-free access to the Indian market.
Agriculture provides livelihoods for more than 40 percent of India’s 1.4 billion population, and opening the sector to foreign competition has long been politically sensitive.
India signed an interim framework of the US trade deal last week, with the formal pact being expected to be finalized by March. The US cut its 50 percent duty on Indian goods to 18 percent, while India agreed to eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and a wide range of farm and food products.
While details of the agreement have not yet been announced, farmers fear being undercut by cheap, subsidized American products which will threaten their livelihood.
Rakesh Tikait, national spokesman for the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Indian Farmers’ Union) said the government had not held discussions with farmers before agreeing to the deal.
The BKU and other rural platforms have joined a broader strike held across India by major trade unions opposed to new labor codes — which have been criticized for weakening workers’ rights and reducing job security — as they saw common cause with other workers.
“We are protesting against the US–India trade deal, which we fear goes against the larger interests of Indian farmers. If US farm goods, fishery products, and dairy products hit the Indian market, Indian farmers cannot withstand this onslaught and would be ruined,” Tikait told Arab News from a protest site in Western Uttar Pradesh.
“We want this deal to be changed and made pro-farmer. Otherwise we will oppose it tooth and nail.”
According to Rajveer Singh Jadaun, president of the farmers’ union in Uttar Pradesh, the agriculture sector is facing an “existential threat” in a country that historically imposes tariffs of 30–150 percent on imports to protect farmers.
With tariffs reduced or eliminated and those imposed on Indian products higher than before, protesting farmers are convinced there is no level playing field.
“The deal is giving a zero percent tariff to the US’ agricultural and other products and we are charged 18 percent, which is higher than the 3 percent in the past,” Jadaun said.
“American farmers are celebrating the deal — that means there is something fishy … The government is speaking in many voices and that creates further confusion. I would like the government to clarify the stand and make everything clear.”
Prices of Indian corn and soybean have already fallen by 4 percent and 10 percent respectively, following the deal’s announcement.
P. Krishna Prasad, finance secretary of the All India Farmers’ Union, predicted that prices of other products may soon fall, too.
“They are bringing fresh and processed fruits. If apples are being brought at 75 rupees ($1) per kilo to India from America, then the apple economy of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh will collapse,” he said.
“In America, there are only 1.7 million farmers, but in India there are 166 million farmer households. And in America, one farmer household is getting a 60 lakh rupees ($73,000) subsidy per year. In India, that is nearly 27,000 rupees ($330) per year. There is no level playing field. Indian farmers cannot compete with these highly motorized or mechanized farms of America.”
While Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has addressed the protesters — saying that they “will not suffer any harm” as the trade deal is “fair, equitable, and balanced” — Prasad warned they were prepared to stage a strike similar to the 2020-21 protest, in which they opposed three farm acts that sought to open the sector to corporations.
The strike, that lasted nearly 18 months, involved millions of protesters and was India’s largest and longest in recent times. It forced the government to repeal the contested legislation.
“America will dictate Indian policy, so the sovereignty of the Indian people and the country is totally being compromised,” Prasad said.
“We feel this is a total surrender of Indian farmers and Indian agriculture to imperialist, multinational corporations. We cannot accept it. We will stop it. We will come to the streets and build this agitation bigger than the 2021 farmers’ agitation.”
