Every third bank fails to report money laundering

Despite long-running education campaigns, many Danish banks fail to report suspicious money transfers to the fraud squad

Twenty-five of the country's 83 banks – so nearly one in three – did not report a single suspicious transaction in the period from January 2012 to 10 April 2014, reports Politiken based on new statistics from the Danish Money Laundering Secretariat.

According to Karina Hansen, a special consultant at the Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA), it is especially small and middle-sized banks that thwart their legal obligation to report suspicious transactions, which could be related to the money laundering of criminal profits, drugs, weapons or actual terrorist activity.

More inspections expected
“A very likely next step will be that we inspect some of these banks," said Hansen.

"If it turns out that there is something that is not working as it should, they will get an injunction. And the conclusions we reach from our studies will be published.”

Last autumn, Arbejdernes Landsbank was fined 5.5 million kroner by the FSA for using a system deemed to be inadequate for detecting cases of money laundering.




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