Nordea has been deficient in its handling of the EU sanctions regulations and in its work to prevent money laundering. Due to the serious nature of the deficiencies, which in some cases have existed for a long period of time, the bank is receiving a remark and an administrative fine of SEK 30 million.
The bank did not screen beneficial owners against the EU sanctions regulations for several years. The bank has exposed itself to the risk of giving blacklisted individuals access to funds and economic resources without the bank´s knowledge.
The bank was also deficient in its reporting to FI regarding transactions in frozen accounts; only 16 out of 74 transactions were reported to FI. As a whole, the bank has been deficient in its internal governance and control with regard to the EU sanctions regulations.
The bank was also deficient in its risk assessment regarding a customer from Gibraltar. Appropriate risk assessments are a prerequisite for preventing money laundering and the financing of terrorism and the bank has not performed sufficient customer due diligence.
FI identified as early as 2010 deficiencies in the bank’s compliance with the EU sanction regulations and views the fact that the deficiencies are still present as particularly serious.