Banks, Crime, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Legislation

Ole Andersen, chairman of Danske Bank. Photo: danskebank.com.

The findings, contained in a draft report commissioned by Denmark's largest bank and seen by the Financial Times, raises questions for Danske's leadership about who knew, and when, about the sheer volume of foreign money passing through its small Estonian branch, the report quoted by ERR says. 

The report by Promontory Financial, the consultancy, found that up to 30 bln dollars, or 26 bln euros according to the current exchange rate, was parked in Danske's Estonian branch by non-residents in 2013, the peak year of a scandal that lasted from 2007 until 2015. 

"NRP [non-resident portfolio] transaction volume peaked in 2013 with the number of transactions approaching 80,000 that year, and the transaction volume approaching 30 bln U.S. dollars," the independent findings, seen by the Financial Times, stated. 

One person close to the investigation said: "It's a truly breathtaking amount for such a small branch. You can't have that amount flowing through without it raising questions." 

Not all of those transactions will be suspicious. But it is up to the bank to satisfy itself -- and regulators -- that it was not being used to launder funds and that it had strong enough controls to spot dirty money. 

"We take the matter very seriously, which is why we have initiated very extensive investigations," Ole Andersen, chairman of Danske Bank, told the Financial Times. "We are committed to understanding the full picture, and I believe that it is in everybody's interest that conclusions are drawn on the basis of verified facts and not fragmented pieces of information taken out of context."

"We are in the process of finalizing reports, but as we have already communicated, it is clear that the issues related to the portfolio were bigger than we have previously anticipated," Andersen added.

The amount of suspicious transactions over the nine-year period was initially estimated at 3.9 bln U.S. dollars. Bill Browder, a critic of the Russian government, and Berlingske, a Danish newspaper, both claimed in July that the figure had risen to 8.3 bln dollars, causing Danske to concede that the final sum would be "somewhat larger" than the initial estimate.