Swedbank – Financial Treason & Crime

ValueWalk, 07 May 2021

Banking regulators around the globe were busy last year despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Like any other year, the regulators imposed heavy fines on banks and financial institutions for a range of indiscretions, including money laundering, tax evasion and market manipulation. It is estimated that total bank fines amounted to more than $14 billion in 2020, with the U.S. accounting for the majority of them with 12 bank fines. Anti-money laundering (AML) breaches were the most common violation last year. Detailed below are the ten biggest bank fines of 2020. Continue reading “Article: THESE ARE THE TEN BIGGEST BANK FINES OF 2020”

05/05/202105/08/2021

Article: Swedbank Fined $5.5 million by Nasdaq Stockholm

Article - Media, Publications

Swedbank Fined $5.5 million by Nasdaq Stockholm

Dominic Chopping, 05 May 2021

STOCKHOLM–Swedbank AB said Wednesday that it has been ordered to pay 46.6 million Swedish kronor ($5.5 million) by Nasdaq Stockholm’s disciplinary committee for anti-money laundering shortcomings.

“The disciplinary committee states that Swedbank over a long period of time had shortcomings in its AML processes and routines and that the shortcomings were known to the bank’s former top management for a long period of time,” the bank said.

The fine, for breaching Nasdaq rules on disclosure of information, relates to the period between December 2016 and February 2019. Continue reading “Article: Swedbank Fined $5.5 million by Nasdaq Stockholm”

04/27/202104/28/2021

Article: Swedbank ‘not fast enough’ on mortgage lending, causing loss of market share

Article - Media, Publications

Swedbank ‘not fast enough’ on mortgage lending, causing loss of market share

Sanne Wass, 27 April 2021

Amid heavy anti-money-laundering hiring and investments, Swedbank AB (publ) is demonstrating slow response time and a lack of availability elsewhere in its business, causing it to lose market share within mortgage lending in Sweden.

Presenting Swedbank’s first-quarter earnings, CEO Jens Henriksson said the bank is “well-positioned when it comes to pricing” on its mortgage loans but it had been too slow in responding to customers’ needs. As a result, Swedbank had not been able to defend its market position.

“We have not been available … we’ve not been fast enough,” he said on an earnings call April 27. Continue reading “Article: Swedbank ‘not fast enough’ on mortgage lending, causing loss of market share”

06/13/201903/11/2021

Article: Europol highlights Russian money as biggest laundering threat

Article - Media, Publications

Europol highlights Russian money as biggest laundering threat

John O’Donnell, 13 July 2019

Europe’s Baltic states are at risk from further Russian money laundering, a top European police official said after several big banks were hit by scandals centered on the region.

Pedro Felicio, who is responsible for fighting money laundering at European police agency Europol, told Reuters that “huge inflows of criminal money” are mainly coming into Europe from Russia and China.

Russian money is alleged to be at the heart of multi-billion dollar laundering rackets that engulfed Danske Bank, Denmark’s largest lender and Sweden’s Swedbank. Continue reading “Article: Europol highlights Russian money as biggest laundering threat”

05/30/201903/11/2021

Article: THE FALLOUT FROM RUSSIAN MONEY LAUNDERING CONTINUES TO GROW FOR EUROPEAN BANKS

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THE FALLOUT FROM RUSSIAN MONEY LAUNDERING CONTINUES TO GROW FOR EUROPEAN BANKS

Nicholas Larsen, International Banker, 20 May 2019

On April 5, Lars Idermark resigned from his position as the chairman of Swedbank, headquartered in Sweden. Idermark stepped down from his position only a week after the chief executive officer, and previously the supervisor of Swedbank operations in the Baltic states, Birgitte Bonnesen, was fired. The moves come amid sweeping allegations that Sweden’s oldest bank was involved in laundering billions of dollars’ worth of Russian money. In particular, the lender’s Baltic units have been named as being complicit in handling illegal funds from Russia as well as other smaller former Soviet countries. Continue reading “Article: THE FALLOUT FROM RUSSIAN MONEY LAUNDERING CONTINUES TO GROW FOR EUROPEAN BANKS”

03/08/201903/10/2021

Article: Factbox: European banks hit by Russian money laundering scandal

Article - Media, Publications

Factbox: European banks hit by Russian money laundering scandal

Reuters Staff, 08 March 2019

Several European banks are facing allegations of being involved in a Baltic money laundering scandal and failing to prevent tainted Russian money from flowing through their branches across the world. Continue reading “Article: Factbox: European banks hit by Russian money laundering scandal”