The BNP Paribas investigation, thought to have begun as long ago as 2007, involved a number of US regulators including the Justice Department and Benjamin Lawsky, the head of the New York department of financial services, which took action against Standard Chartered in 2012. The fine will be split between the agencies. At the height of the talks, Hollande wrote to Barack Obama to complain that the fine would be disproportionate, and in June, France's foreign minister Laurent Fabius said the fine was not "reasonable". There have been concerns that the scale of the fine could weaken the bank by lowering its all-important capital ratios, although Michel Barnier, the European commissioner for financial services, was quoted as saying that he bank "can handle" the fine. The bank appears to have underestimated the scale of the penalty after taking a provision of $1.1bn only a few months ago to cover the cost of the action by the US authorities, which has already knocked 15% off its share price.