Allegations that Swedbank AB had facilitated money laundering spooked investors who hadn’t viewed the lender’s leading market position in the Baltics as big a risk. The bank’s response to a scandal that has now engulfed a large part of Europe’s financial industry has been inadequate. Amid allegations that clients moved 95 billion kronor ($10.3 billion) of suspect funds through the bank, Swedbank published a hastily commissioned review by the Forensic Risk Alliance into 50 clients that may have been responsible for about 40 billion kronor of transactions. From shareholders to Bill Browder, the U.S. investor who has made combating Russia money laundering a life cause, there were calls for more transparency. Even Swedbank admitted that its “understanding and the knowledge of this topic is quite low.”The region’s deeply fragmented regulatory and police effort to prevent money laundering has been a proved a boon for criminals.

Source: Washington Post March 22, 2019 12:45 UTC