A senior regulatory in the US has said that any settlement between authorities and BNP Paribas over sanctions violations must include the sacking of some senior staff.

The most senior banking regulator in New York, Benjamin Lawsky, is asking BNP Paribas to fire some senior executives as part of a settlement of allegations that the French bank broke US sanctions against Iran and other nations, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources.

Separately, Bloomberg, in a survey of French news media and political opinion, noted that the affair, coming shortly before world leaders gather in France to mark the 70 th anniversary of the June 6 Normandy operations, is souring relations. There are complaints in France over whether the US is acting as a bully on compliance matters. The issue of US regulatory reach has been given added edge due to the extra-terroritorial nature of US tax powers and the passing in 2010 of the US FATCA Act.

The comments attributed to Lawsky came shortly after news services reported last week that the Paris-listed banking group could face a settlement of over $10 billion, of the biggest such settlements involving a foreign firm in the US since BP’s multi-billion settlement over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster a few years ago.

The report said Lawsky has demanded that more than a dozen employees be fired and one of the sources told the news service that this will include people in the bank's "upper management." The source declined to provide further details, the report said.

The other source told the news service that Lawsky is not expected to want the bank's top two or three executives fired. Some employees have already been told they will no longer be with the bank, and more firings were expected, the source said. The identities of the employees could not be learned. It is unclear how hard Lawsky plans to push his demand. BNP Paribas and Lawsky's office declined to comment, it added.

This publication has been in contact with BNP Paribas about these matters but the bank has declined to comment.

The issue of breaches of sanctions against Iran, Sudan and other nations has taken on added poignancy since the US and European Union initiated sanctions against a number of high-ranking Russian officials, and other persons, to put pressure on Russia over recent actions in Ukraine.