However BP is thought to be relieved that it has reached a settlement, because the potential liability was unlimited - although the settlement involves the humiliation for the leading oil company of pleading guilty to criminal charges.

BBC: BP fined $3bn to $5bn

Khalid and his four brothers inherited NCB upon their father's death in 1994, and a 21% stake was sold to a group of private investors when the bank morphed from an unlimited liability private partnership into a joint stock company.

FORBES: Banker Khalid Bin Mahfouz is dead at age 60.