Banks, Estonia, Financial Services
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Saturday, 23.09.2023, 01:59
Danske Bank's compliance head quits after 'intense' work over Estonia scandal

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"There
is no direct link to the money laundering case in Estonia, but it is clear that
it is generally very intense to work with compliance, and especially the past
year in Danske Bank has been very
intense," Jorgensen told FinansWatch.
"But
for me and the bank, my decision is really quite undramatic," he told the
Danish business news website.
A Danske Bank spokesman said management
had been aware of Jorgensen's decision for some time and expected to announce
his replacement before long.
The
resignation of Jorgensen adds to the list of top managers exiting after Danske Bank admitted to flaws in anti
money-laundering controls in Estonia.
Jorgensen,
43, will leave the bank in November, after being head of compliance since 2014.
Shares in Danske Bank have fallen nearly 25% over
the last four months, as the money laundering scandal has unraveled.
Danske Bank last September announced it has expanded its
ongoing investigation into the customers and transactions of its Estonian
branch from 2007 to 2015. The bank hired Jens
Madsen, the former head of Denmark's intelligence agency and fraud squad,
to help the bank in its effort to investigate a possible case of money
laundering in the Estonian branch of the bank.
The bank in
October 2017 was placed under investigation by the High Court of Paris in
relation to suspicions of money laundering concerning transactions carried out
by customers of Danske Bank Estonia
from 2008 to 2011. According to the Danish daily Berlingske, the investigation launched by French authorities into
the activities of the Estonian branch of Danske
Bank is linked to the case of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
In April,
the bank's head of Baltic business banking and the head of business banking
both left their posts.
A report
earlier this month said that Danske's Estonian operations may have been used to
launder as much as seven billion euros, which is more than twice as much as
initially believed.
Danske Bank at the end of April announced it is about to
stop serving local business and private banking customers in the Baltic
countries. The group said that the move was in line with their strategy
to focus exclusively on supporting subsidiaries of Nordic customers and
global corporates "with a significant Nordic footprint."