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MONEY LAUNDERING

Britain fines Swiss bank over laundering ‘failures’

Britain on Wednesday said it had fined the British private banking arm of Zurich-based EFG International Group a reduced penalty of £4.2 million ($6.4 million) for failures in its anti-money laundering controls.

Britain fines Swiss bank over laundering 'failures'
EFG Private Bank in London. Photo: (Detail) EFG International

"The Financial Conduct Authority has fined EFG Private Bank Ltd £4.2 million for failing to take reasonable care to establish and maintain effective anti-money laundering (AML) controls for high risk customers," the FCA said in a statement.
   
"The failings were serious and lasted for more than three years."

   
Tracey McDermott, head of enforcement and financial crime at the FCA added 
in the statement:"Banks are the first line of defence to make sure that proceeds of crime do not find their way into the UK. 

"In this case while EFG's policies looked good on paper, in practice it manifestly failed to ensure that it was addressing its AML risks.

"Its poor implementation of its agreed policies risked the bank handling the proceeds of crime.

"These failures merited a strong penalty from the FCA."

The FCA said because EFG settled at an early stage of the investigation, the bank qualified for a 30-percent discount on its fine — without which the penalty would have totalled £6 million.

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MONEY LAUNDERING

US files lawsuit against scandal-hit Danske Bank

The United States and a US pension fund have filed a claim in a Danish court seeking more than $1.6 million for lost investments following a money laundering scandal that engulfed Danske Bank, their lawyer confirmed.

US files lawsuit against scandal-hit Danske Bank
Photo: Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen/Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix

“A lawsuit was filed in September against Danske Bank and its former CEO Thomas Borgen,” lawyer Thomas Donatzky said on Tuesday, adding that he could not provide any details.

The Danish financial daily Børsen, which first reported on the lawsuit, said the US government and pension fund were seeking 10 million kroner (1.3 million euros) due to losses suffered after shares in Danske Bank plunged in 2018 when the bank got caught up in huge money laundering schemes.

An investigation carried out by an outside law firm for the bank found that it could not account for the origin of more than $220 billion that flowed through its Estonian branch from 2007 to 2015, much of which was suspected to have come from Russia.

Borgen resigned in the wake of the scandal and the bank closed its operations in the Baltic States and Russia.

“The contingent liabilities related to civil shareholder claims and related amount described in today’s media coverage is part of the disclosure in our Annual Report for 2020,” Danske Bank said in a statement.

The report put the total of such claims at 12.4 billion kroner at the end of 2020. 

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