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

The penalty would mark a Danish record for such cases, Bloomberg said.

The estimate does not take into account potential fines that might be levied elsewhere. Bloomberg Intelligence estimates Danske may have to pay more than a billion euros in total, while a Bloomberg News survey points to about 800 mln U.S. dollars or 680 mln euros, roughly matching the amount that Deutsche Bank AG and ING Groep NV paid for similar misdeeds.

Rasmus Jarlov, Denmark's business minister and the man in charge of overseeing financial legislation in Danske's home market, said the 536 mln euro estimate is based on an assumption that the bank's profits from transactions tainted by laundering amount to about 1.5 bln kroner. That's what Danske says it earned at the Estonian unit at the center of the case, and what the bank has earmarked for "donation" to society.