Standard Chartered bank

Standard Chartered has agreed a $340m settlement with New York regulators that accused it of hiding $250bn (£161bn) of transactions with Iran.

The hearing that had been scheduled for Wednesday has now been adjourned, reports the BBC.

The bank's chief executive Peter Sands has been in New York negotiating with the regulators.

The bank had admitted that some of its transactions did break US sanctions, but said that the amount totalled just $14m.

"The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) and Standard Chartered Bank have reached an agreement to settle the matter raised in the DFS order dated August 6, 2012," a statement from the regulator's superintendent said.

"The parties have agreed that the conduct at issue involved transactions of at least $250bn."

Last week, New York's DFS alleged that the US unit of the bank had illegally hidden 60,000 transactions with Iran worth $250bn over nearly a decade.

It accused the London-based bank of being a "rogue institution" for breaking US sanctions against Iran.

Sands said at the time that he was "completely surprised" by the ferocity of the DFS's attack, which he described as "disproportionate".

He did, however, admit that 300 transactions did break US sanctions.

"This was clearly wrong and we are sorry that they happened," Sands said.