EU calls for probe into Danske money laundering scandal
The European Commission has called for an EU investigation into the regulatory failures that led to a multi-billion-euro money laundering scandal at Denmark's Danske Bank.
An audit ordered by Danske Bank addressing the activities of the bank's Estonian branch from 2007 through 2015 showed that the bank's non-resident customers moved over €200 billion.
The audit identified that most of the 10,000 non-resident customers of the bank's Estonian branch were suspicious, and it is likely that most of the transaction flow of the bank was also problematic.
The European Commission has written a letter to the European Banking Authority (EBA), the regulatory authority of the EU, asking it to "fully utilise" its powers to probe what happened to the monitoring of Danske's Estonian branch, spokesperson Christian Wigland told AFP on Sunday.
The Financial Times reported that the letter from the European Commission to the EBA, which it has seen, called for investigations to establish any possible "breach or non-application of European Union law both by the Estonian as well as the Danish supervisors," and requested a probe "with the necessary degree of urgency."
Editor: Aili Vahtla
Source: BNS
