Jyske Bank Accused of AML Violations by Danish Regulators

Danish regulators have reported Jyske Bank for possible anti-money laundering (AML) violations.

Denmark’s Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) said the lender’s due diligence methods had “significant shortcomings,” Reuters reported Monday (Nov. 28).

In a statement posted on its website, Jyske Bank said that the FSA’s investigation was conducted in the fall of 2021, that its report on a small number of home loans was published in September and that the bank fixed the shortcomings that were found by the FSA as soon as it learned about them.

“Jyske Bank is now awaiting the police investigation of the matter,” Jyske Bank Managing Director Peter Schleidt said in the statement. “We will cooperate with the police on all issues of the matter, and we hope for a quick decision.”

The statement added that the portfolio in question is small, that it has been administered from Denmark since 2009 and that the foreign clients named in the FSA report have only home loans with Jyske Bank — with no access to payment accounts or cards from the bank.

“In Jyske Bank’s assessment, there is a limited risk that the bank has been exploited for money laundering,” the statement said.

In the latest changes to the European Union’s (EU) AML framework, the European Commission is finalizing the details of a package of proposals to strengthen the EU’s ability to counter financial crime.

The EU’s commissioner for financial services, Mairead McGuinness, said Nov. 15 that the new measures represent “a tectonic shift in our approach.”

First presented last year, the proposed new rules will close loopholes in existing legislation and harmonize oversight across the EU member states by creating a central AML authority that will be tasked with ensuring enforcement of the rules.

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