trending Market Intelligence /marketintelligence/en/news-insights/trending/JDM0Ifntbuy9NozO_OMifA2 content esgSubNav
In This List

Report: Denmark mulls measures to protect bankers who expose shady transactions

Podcast

Street Talk Episode 87

Blog

A New Dawn for European Bank M&A Top 5 Trends

Blog

Insight Weekly: US banks' loan growth; record share buybacks; utility M&A outlook

Blog

Banking Essentials Newsletter 2021: December Edition


Report: Denmark mulls measures to protect bankers who expose shady transactions

Denmark wants to introduce measures to protect bankers who expose suspicious transactions by ensuring that concerned clients are kept in the dark when their dealings are flagged to authorities, Bloomberg News reported.

The country's bankers association, Finans Danmark, said bankers regularly receive threats and reprisals from customers who are reported to authorities for suspicious dealings, the report said.

Tax authorities are currently mandated to notify residents if they are reported to the national office tasked with investigating money laundering, and banks are unable to share information about potentially suspicious customers. The proposed measures would change the transparency requirement, Bloomberg noted.

Denmark is reeling from the involvement of its largest lender, Danske Bank A/S, in a $200 billion money laundering scandal. The lender is now the focus of multiple probes and a U.S. class action lawsuit.

The proposed measures came after the former CEO of Danske's Estonia operation, Aivar Rehe, was found dead near his home on Sept. 25. He was not considered a suspect in any case or probe and was not part of a group of bankers that police detained in 2018.

Meanwhile, Raul Malmstein, former head of Estonia's financial regulator, criticized Danish authorities for failing to uncover the extent of the money laundering scandal, City A.M. reported. He told BBC's Today that the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority "took a view that it is not a very serious problem, and the same applied to Danske's main office in Denmark."