By PAUL O’DONOGHUE, Senior Correspondent
DANISH prosecutors are asking for Nordea Bank to pay a 6.6 billion Danish kroner (€880 million) fine for a series of anti-money laundering failings.
The penalty would be by far the largest ever for an AML case in Denmark, dwarfing the €470 million fine officials handed Danske Bank in 2022.
Prosecutors have charged Nordea over alleged AML failings between 2012 and 2015 by processing more than €3.5 billion worth of suspicious transactions largely linked to Russian clients.
Prosecutors at the Copenhagen City Court have “demanded” a 6.6 billion DKK fine for Nordea, according to The Copenhagen Post.
The Finland-based lender initially set aside €95 million to deal with the issue.
In a statement to AML Intelligence, Anders Holkmann, Group General Counsel at Nordea Denmark, said: “We maintain that Nordea is not guilty of the charges brought against the bank by the prosecution. In our view, this has been further substantiated during the court case.
“Our controls and processes ten years ago could – particularly when viewed from today’s perspective – have been better.
“But there is a difference between whether you could have done something better and whether you have committed a criminal act.
Hans Fogtdal, a lawyer and former deputy public prosecutor at Denmark’s National Special Crime Unit (NSK) – which is bringing the case against Nordea – predicted a penalty of this size.
Speaking in 2024, he said the case could attract a charge of as much as 6.5 billion Danish kroner.
Nordea fine proposal
Last month the Danish financial supervisory authority (FSA) asked police to investigate whether Nordea Finans Danmark has failed to comply with AML regulations on CDD.
The FSA said in a statement it had assessed that the Nordea Bank entity did not have sufficient knowledge of individuals within a larger group of customers issued with credit cards.
The assessment was based on the FSA’s inspection at the bank’s Danish subsidiary Nordea Finans Danmark in June 2023.
Nordea said the FSA had presented the company with an administrative fine proposal.
“Nordea Finans cannot accept the proposal, as the Authority’s assessment of the case goes significantly further than the legal requirements, and as the fine is significantly out of proportion to the administrative deficiencies that the Authority believes it has identified,” it said.
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