Standard Chartered is preparing to defend itself against allegations from the New York state financial regulator that it hid a quarter of a trillion US dollars in transactions tied to Iranian clients in a hearing.

The scheduled 15 August hearing is widely anticipated as there has been war of words between the New York's Department of Financial Services (DFS), headed up by Benjamin Lawsky and Standard Chartered's CEO Peter Sands, which have flown back and forth over the last week.

According to reports, the bank is has already discussed a settlement amount to resolve the inquiry and will also be defending its right to a US banking licence, after the DFS threatened to revoke it.

Standard Chartered has already vehemently denied the allegations in public statements and with the CEO hitting back at the regulator saying "we reject the position and portrayal of facts by the DFS and that it would be disproportionate and wholly inconsistent with the actions of other US authorities in other sanctions matters to revoke the bank's New York licence"

The DFS said on the 6<sup>th August that it conducted an extensive investigation, which included the review of more than 30,000 pages of documents, including internal Standard Chartered e-mails that "describe wilful and egregious violations of law".

Shares have tumbled since the news of the investigation and South Korea has now revealed it will be investigating the bank, as well as HSBC.

It said that while there were no specific grounds to suspect wrongdoing by the banks' Korean branches, the probes were derived entirely from developments in the US.

Written and Presented by Lianna Brinded.