US regulators have got their man. Georges Chodron de Courcel, long-serving chief operating officer of BNP Paribas, is off, ahead of the French bank's settlement over alleged sanctions breaches, which is rumoured to amount to $10bn.
The curious part, though, is that neither the sanctions violations, nor the role of the US prosecutors, are mentioned in the French bank's announcement. Instead, Chodron de Courcel, 64, will "retire" in order to comply with a new French banking law that limits the number of boardroom posts a individual can hold.
Thus the other directors of BNP can pay tribute to their colleague, and the man himself can speak of his pride in contributing to "this outstanding group". In this way, everybody can pretend this is unconnected to the almighty row with US officialdom, which has had the French president, François Hollande, complaining about an "disproportionate" fine and threatening to link the affair to US-EU trade talks.
Everybody can see the connection, of course. It has been rumoured for weeks that US regulators wanted to see Chodron de Courcel's resignation, even if he has not been accused of wrong-doing.
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