Swedbank Picks up Chunky Fine for AML Breaches

Swedbank AB has been fined four billion Swedish kronor by Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority after serious deficiencies were revealed related to its anti-money laundering procedures. Finansinspektionen had been investigating Swedbank in cooperation with equivalent supervisory authorities in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania since February 2019. This investigation displayed insufficient awareness of the risk of money laundering and inadequate processes, controls and systems. In addition, the bank’s Baltic operations were lacking required resources to combat money laundering. 

The authority said that the bank withheld documentation and information that revealed the severity of the situation and the investigation showed that management did not sufficiently address the risk of money laundering in the Baltics. Swedbank recently notified the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control of potential sanctions violations regarding $4.8m of transactions after an internal probe.