US agrees to 'fairer' fine for BNP Paribas

Paris - The French government has convinced US authorities to soften the mooted multi-billion-dollar penalty hanging over BNP Paribas, Finance Minister Michel Sapin said on Sunday.

"Progress has been made so that the US justice system's penalty against BNP Paribas is fairer," Sapin told Europe 1 radio in an interview.

BNP has been negotiating with US authorities for months on a settlement to end a criminal probe into allegations it violated US sanctions on Iran, Sudan and other countries.

US prosecutors were reported last month as wanting the bank to pay over $10bn for processing dollar payments to countries on the US sanctions list. They were also reported to be considering temporarily suspending BNP's US licence.

The report caused alarm in France, where the penalty were slammed as disproportionate, including by President Francois Hollande.

The biggest fine so far was paid by Britain's HSBC Holdings, which settled for $1.9bn.

Sapin said the case threatened the French economy by causing uncertainty about the future of the country's biggest bank and hoped the matter was "close to a resolution".

"We want fair penalties that punish the past but don't punish the future," he said.