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Reports: BNP Paribas Chairman Baudouin Prot To Resign(dpa-AFX International Compact Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) PARIS (dpa-AFX) - BNP Paribas SA (BNPQY.PK, BNP.L) Chairman Baudouin Prot has decided to resign, about three months after the French lender pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a record fine of $8.9 billion for violating U.S. sanctions, according to media reports on Tuesday. Prot was chief executive officer of the BNP Paribas during most of the period in which U.S. authorities alleged BNP Paribas violated U.S. sanctions. BNP Paribas' board is reportedly slated to meet on Friday and confirm Prot's resignation. Prot, aged 63, is expected to step down effective December 1. He will likely be succeeded by Jean Lemierre, a senior advisor to Prot, according to media reports on Tuesday. Lemierre previously headed the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 2000 to 2008. BNP Paribas became the second major European bank to plead guilty in the U.S. this year. In May, Credit Suisse Group AG (CS) agreed to pay $2.6 billion. Credit Suisse has been the target of a U.S. criminal investigation since 2011 on tax evading accusations. BNP Paribas, in late June,agreed to pay a record fine of $8.9 billion to U.S. federal and state authorities for conspiring with other entities to deliberately and repeatedly violate longstanding U.S. sanctions against Sudan, Cuba, and Iran. At the direction of the Department of Financial Services, BNP Paribas cut ties with 13 of its employees, including Group Chief Operating Officer George Chodron de Courcel and Stephen Strombelline, Head of Ethics and Compliance for North America. In total, including those terminated, the bank disciplined 45 employees in connection with the probe, with levels of discipline ranging from dismissals, to cuts in compensation, demotion and other sanctions. From 1974 to 1983, Prot was successively the Deputy Prefect of the Franche-Comté region of France, French General Inspector of Finance, and the Deputy Director of Energy and Raw Materials of the Ministry of Industry. Prot then joined the Banque Nationale de Paris SA in 1983. After BNP merged with Paribas in 2000, he was appointed its CEO in 2003. He was the company's CEO from June 2003 until December 2011, when he became chairman. BNPQY closed Tuesday's trading at $33.97, down $0.42 or 1.24 percent on a volume of 218,519 shares. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX |