Swedbank AB revealed in a press statement intended to anticipate the November 20, 2019 release of an interview with a Swedish television news program, disclosed between 2012 and 2018, less than 1% of the bank’s total profit was derived from the non-resident portfolio of its Baltic banking division. The bank’s CEO, Jens Henriksson, noted that the news program had provided the bank with additional information that will be incorporated into the bank’s ongoing internal investigation into money laundering, assisted by outside counsel and forensic experts. On October 29, 2019, the bank received a decision from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority to initiate the sanction process in the Authority’s ongoing anti-money laundering investigation. According to the press release, Swedbank is also the subject of a sanctions process by the Finantsinspektsioon of Estonia. The bank commented that it had established an Anti-Financial Crime unit in April 2019, to coordinate 132 initiatives to improve routines, system support and processing in order to strengthen the bank’s money laundering prevention programs.
Press release (November 2019) | Press release (October 2019)