Estonian Finance Minister Martin Helme has called on the country's largest banks to refine their anti-money laundering controls and procedures after business activities and transactions in the country were impacted by recent dirty money scandals, Bloomberg News reported Jan. 9.

"Differentiating between the good and bad, as well as training people and setting up alerts, must be smarter," Helme reportedly said.

The money-laundering scandals involving Nordic lenders' Estonian units have tainted the image of the country, impacting local legitimate business. As an example, Helme pointed to a decision by a U.S. firm to back out of a "sizeable" investment in the country in 2019 after three large banks declined to open an account for it, the report added.