ABN Amro has reached a €480m settlement with Dutch prosecutors over anti-money laundering failings, following an investigation that has additionally triggered the resignation of Danske Financial institution’s chief govt.
ABN mentioned on Monday that prosecutors had discovered “severe shortcomings in ABN Amro’s processes to fight cash laundering within the Netherlands, such because the shopper acceptance, transaction monitoring and shopper exit processes”, and that it had put in place a plan to enhance its processes.
The Dutch Public Prosecution Service mentioned that “varied purchasers engaged in felony actions have been in a position to abuse financial institution accounts and companies of ABN Amro for a very long time”.
The €480m settlement is made up of a €300m superb and €180m of disgorgement, which displays the financial savings the financial institution created from its insufficient controls. The issues occurred between 2014 and 2020.
Chief govt Robert Swaak mentioned: “Regretfully, I’ve to acknowledge that previously we now have been insufficiently profitable in correctly fulfilling our essential position as gatekeeper. That is unacceptable and we take full duty for this.”
Three former ABN Amro board members have been recognized as suspects in an investigation by prosecutors. Certainly one of them, Chris Vogelzang, resigned from his place as chief govt of Denmark’s Danske Financial institution on Monday.
The transfer is a humiliation to Danske, which introduced Vogelzang in as an outsider to scrub up its personal money-laundering scandal, one of many largest ever uncovered.
Danske, which is below investigation by US authorities and going through a big superb, named its chief threat officer Carsten Egeriis to exchange Vogelzang.
Vogelzang mentioned he was “stunned” by prosecutors’ choice to call him a suspect, 4 years after he left ABN Amro, however pressured it didn’t indicate he can be charged. He pressured he was “snug with the truth that I managed my administration tasks with integrity and dedication”.
He added: “Given the particular state of affairs Danske Financial institution is in and the extraordinary scrutiny the financial institution is below, notably in relation to anti-money laundering as a consequence of the nonetheless unresolved Estonia matter, I are not looking for speculations about my individual to get in the best way of the continued growth of Danske Financial institution. Due to this fact, I really feel that the one proper factor is for me to go away.”
Vogelzang took up the job as boss of Danske in June 2019, three months earlier than ABN Amro disclosed the probe into it by Dutch public prosecutors.
