Standard Chartered Fought the Lawsky and the Lawsky Won

Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Benjamin Lawsky, New York’s topstate banking regulator, shook up the financial world bysqueezing a record settlement out of Standard Chartered Plc overallegations that it laundered money for Iran. Let’s get thismuch straight about him, too: He’s no rogue cop. He’s a loyalsoldier.

Look at the section on the New York State Department ofFinancial Services website that lists the agency’s pressreleases this year, and you will see a pattern. Most of theheadlines start with the name of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo,not Lawsky, the department superintendent who serves at thegovernor’s pleasure. Within minutes of Lawsky’s disclosure thisweek that Standard Chartered had agreed to pay a $340 millionpenalty, Cuomo released his own statement taking much of thecredit for the 10-month-old department’s creation last year.