Swedbank has stood down CEO Birgitte Bonnesen amid a €135 billion money-laundering scandal. The move comes a day after Swedish police raided the bank’s headquarters as part of its investigation into aggravated fraud and breaches of insider information. Bonnesen’s ousting follows that of Danske Bank’s Thomas Borgen, who resigned after the lender admitted it let €200 billion of suspicious payments flow through its Estonian branch.
New witch-hunting has started. Wondering why the U.S. is looking at the case while Swedbank has no operations there? Coincidentally, in all this “laundromat“ saga there were only European (mostly Scandinavian) banks involved but most of the noise was stemming from the U.S. authorities. https://lnkd.in/gsVxqtC
Swedbank: Victim of "Fake News" or Perpetrating a Coverup? We live in a world dominated by reality TV (which isn't "real") and fake news (remember WMD). And now the FT is intermating that squeaky clean Sweden's Swedbank might have laundered EUR 135bn through Estonia!! I have sat through several insightful SVT documentaries regarding Swedbank's alleged complicity in money laundering and wasn't surprised by their allegations. All banks have skeletons in the closet. What had surprised me was, Birgitte Bonnesen, Swedbank's CEO. It should be pointed out that Ms. Bonnesen was Head of Internal Audit from 2009 to 2011 then Head of Baltic Banking until 2014 when she became CEO. If anyone knows what went on in the Baltic region it should be her. Ms. Bonnesen was categorical in denying Swedbank had any money laundering exposure, saying that AML was "critical" and that there are no skeletons in the closet. The FT article refers to EUR 135bn transactions by "high risk, non-resident" customers and states that they are not, necessarily suspicious, it doesn't sit well with the statements by Ms. Bonnesen. At the end of the day, Swedbank has to bottom out this AML story by making a full and honest disclosure which will stop the "trial by inuendo". https://on.ft.com/2CEYei0
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Oh the irony! Swedish bank Swedbank is stopping their customers from buying even small amounts of cryptocurrencies because of the risk of money laundering. At the same time, they are being investigated for knowingly have been laundering billions of dollar for Russian oligarchs. I'm so sick and tired of the banking industry right now. #cryptocurrency #banking
Swedbank: Victim of "Fake News" or Perpetrating a Coverup? We live in a world dominated by reality TV (which isn't "real") and fake news (remember WMD). And now the FT is intermating that squeaky clean Sweden's Swedbank might have laundered EUR 135bn through Estonia!! I have sat through several insightful SVT documentaries regarding Swedbank's alleged complicity in money laundering and wasn't surprised by their allegations. All banks have skeletons in the closet. What had surprised me was, Birgitte Bonnesen, Swedbank's CEO. It should be pointed out that Ms. Bonnesen was Head of Internal Audit from 2009 to 2011 then Head of Baltic Banking until 2014 when she became CEO. If anyone knows what went on in the Baltic region it should be her. Ms. Bonnesen was categorical in denying Swedbank had any money laundering exposure, saying that AML was "critical" and that there are no skeletons in the closet. The FT article refers to EUR 135bn transactions by "high risk, non-resident" customers and states that they are not, necessarily suspicious, it doesn't sit well with the statements by Ms. Bonnesen. At the end of the day, Swedbank has to bottom out this AML story by making a full and honest disclosure which will stop the "trial by inuendo". https://on.ft.com/2CEYei0
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Curious as to your thoughts on whether this is a systemic issue with regard to Scandinavian banking, banking in Europe generally (with regard to Eastern European clients) or a scratching of the surface of global banking AML issues in general? Seems we are hearing of more and more of these issues of late.