Finance
Standard Chartered defeats two lawsuits in US over alleged ties to attacks
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on September 27, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on September 27, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Standard Chartered Bank wins dismissal of US lawsuits alleging indirect support for terrorism, with no direct nexus to the attacks.
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Friday dismissed two lawsuits seeking to hold Standard Chartered Bank liable for having allegedly provided indirect support to groups that conducted 12 attacks in Israel and Iraq between 2010 and 2019.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett in Manhattan said the 90 plaintiffs--including attack victims and their relatives or representatives--did not plausibly allege that the British bank "knowingly and substantially assisted" the attacks.
In court papers, Standard Chartered said it "did not commit any acts of terrorism and did not support any terrorist or attack."
The plaintiffs alleged that Standard Chartered provided financial and logistical support to Iran's central bank, other banks and companies, and individuals that aided Hamas, Hezbollah, Jaysh al-Mahdi and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
This allegedly included transfers of billions of dollars, despite counterterrorism warnings from U.S. government officials and others, and violated the federal Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA.
But the judge said that while Standard Chartered "engaged in some wrongdoing" in connection with helping customers evade sanctions, its conduct had no "direct nexus" to the attacks.
"Even under the most generous reading of the allegations there are several steps between any conduct by SCB and the actions of those who directly perpetrated the attacks," Garnett wrote.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Standard Chartered and its lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests.
The cases are Fraenkel et al v Standard Chartered Bank, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 24-04484; and Brauner et al v Standard Chartered Bank in the same court, No. 24-05788.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Diane Craft)
A U.S. judge dismissed two lawsuits that sought to hold Standard Chartered Bank liable for allegedly supporting terrorist groups.
The plaintiffs alleged that Standard Chartered provided financial and logistical support to entities that aided groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.
The judge stated that while Standard Chartered engaged in some wrongdoing, there was no direct connection between the bank's actions and the attacks.
There were 90 plaintiffs, including victims of the attacks and their relatives or representatives.
The plaintiffs claimed that Standard Chartered violated the federal Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act.
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