Danske Bank (Danish Bank)

2021

Bank agrees to pay $2 billion fine for closing fraud and money laundering case from Russia

Danske Bank pleaded guilty in December 2022 and agreed to pay a fine for closing a bank fraud and money laundering case from Russia.

Under the terms of a deal with the US Department of Justice, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as Denmark's Special Crime Unit, the bank will pay the authorities of the two countries a total of 15.3 billion Danish crowns ($2.06 billion).

A woman of Russian origin was detained in Denmark on suspicion of laundering $4.5 billion through the Estonian branch of Danske Bank

In December 2021, a 49-year-old woman of Russian origin was detained in Denmark, suspected of laundering $4.5 billion through the Estonian branch of Danske Bank. The suspect has Danish citizenship, she was extradited to Denmark from Britain. The defendants in the case are accused of money laundering with the help of several companies that had accounts with the Estonian branch of Danske Bank between March 2008 and March 2016.

Dismissal of the head of the bank Vogeltsang after suspicions of money laundering

The board of Danske bank announced the departure of CEO Chris Vogelzang from his post. The banker is suspected of participating in money laundering while working at the ABN AMRO bank, according to a press release published on April 19, 2021.

In his statement to the press, Chris Vogelzang expressed surprise at the charges against him, but given the recent money laundering investigation, which involved Danske Bank, he sees no way out of the situation that has arisen other than voluntary departure. "I do not want suspicions about me to interfere with the further development of Danske Bank," the former director said.

Vogelzang was appointed head of the Danish bank about 2 years ago. He was invited to withdraw Danske Bank from the largest scandal around money laundering, carried out through the now closed branch in Estonia.

2019

Police found the head of the branch in Estonia dead

In September 2019, Estonian police found dead the ex-head of the Danske Bank branch in Estonia Aivar Rehe, who was involved in the Russian money laundering scandal, who disappeared on Monday.

Rehe left his home in Tallinn at 10:00 and did not return. During the investigation of the facts of fraud in a Danish bank, the investigating authorities interrogated the former executive director of the branch, but it is not known what status Rehe had in the case.

On July 1, 2018, the Estonian prosecutor's office announced the initiation of a criminal investigation into the circumstances of possible money laundering with the participation of employees of the Danske Bank branch in the country. The total amount of laundered funds is estimated at €150 billion.

In September 2019, the bank published the results of an audit of 6.2 thousand customers of the Estonian branch, recognizing that most of them can be considered suspicious.

Danske Bank leaves Russia

According to Danske Bank, the credit institution announced the closure of Russian, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian branches due to suspicions of money laundering through its division in Estonia. The statement cites the words of Acting General Director Jesper Nielsen^[1]

According to him, the bank admits that "a serious case of possible money laundering in Estonia had a negative impact on Estonian society." "We regret that we are leaving Estonia against this background, but we understand the seriousness with which the Estonian FSA (Financial Supervision Authority) is considering this case, and we will curtail the remaining activities at their request," the statement said.

The termination of activities in Latvia, Lithuania and Russia will occur regardless of the requirements of the FSA and in accordance with the bank's anti-money laundering strategy, follows from the message.

"Danske Bank has decided to close all these activities," Nielsen said.

In mid-September, amid a money laundering scandal through an Estonian branch, Danske Bank chief executive Thomas Borgen resigned. The bank then admitted that its Estonian branch had suspicious non-resident clients who carried out dubious transactions. In December last year, it became known that ten people were detained in the case of laundering large sums passing through the bank. All of them are former employees of the Estonian branch of Danske Bank, who worked in the division providing services to VIP clients. In October last year, the Financial Times wrote that in 2013 Danske Bank helped non-resident Russians conduct "mirror transactions" in the amount of €6 to €8.5 billion.

Danske Bank is Denmark's largest commercial bank and one of the leading in Northern Europe. The bank's branches are located in more than ten countries around the world. Danske Bank has worked in Russia since 2007 goda​. The bank had offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

2017: Attracting 11,500 customers to the robotic service

In December 2017, it became known that Danske Bank attracted 11,500 customers to the investment service provided by the robot. The largest Danish bank managed to achieve such a result in just six months. Danske Bank hopes the project will help the company expand its private equity management operations.

The robot is called June and works with private clients and small firms that generally do not have the resources to deal with excess cash.

Robot attracted 11,500 Danske Bank customers in six months

Customers who first met June are asked how much they want to invest (the limit is 1 million crowns, or about $160,000 per person). They then need  to select a risk category, and if they are unsure of the answer, Danske offers a short test that follows questions about the investment horizon of choice, income, expenses, assets and financial liabilities. Further, based on the algorithm, June provides recommendations on which of the five funds to invest in. The whole process takes about 10 minutes.

Customers are offered access to exchange-traded funds with different distribution of shares and bonds and different geographical coverage - depending on the level of acceptable risk.

According to Jakob Beck Thomsen, June project manager at Danske Bank, the idea with the robot is mainly to help democratize investment.

More than half of June's customers are under 40 years old. In the case of the company's more traditional investment services, the average age is 60 years or more.

 Thomsen says many customers join Danske through the robot. The type of automation that June offers will be extended to the entire Danske company, including other areas of the bank's work. 

The robot is not a workplace killer. We are mainly looking to expand the private asset business, and this is an addition to our existing business, "he noted.[2]

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