Nordea has reached a final resolution with the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) following an investigation related to the adequacy of Nordea’s anti-money laundering (AML) programme during the period 2008 to 2019.
Under the resolution with DFS, Nordea has agreed to accept a fine totalling USD 35 million (EUR 31.5 million). The amount payable to the US authority has no material impact on the financial position of Nordea, and the charge will be included as a cost in Nordea’s Q3 2024 results.
The historical investigations by DFS concerned Nordea’s former processes, policies and controls to prevent money laundering and the former compliance framework, including those of the closed Vesterport International Branch in Denmark and Nordea’s former operations in the Baltics.
Nordea accepts the terms of the resolution and has cooperated fully with DFS regarding this matter. Nordea understands this resolution concludes DFS’s investigation, and Nordea is not aware of any other pending or active investigation by US authorities related to such historical financial crime prevention matters.
Due to US restrictions regarding confidential supervisory information, Nordea has not been able to disclose details related to this investigation until now.
“Following a close ongoing dialogue and cooperation since 2019, we are pleased to conclude and close this matter with DFS. As previously acknowledged, historically we underestimated the complexity of preventing financial crime and the resources needed for that purpose. In recent years we have invested heavily in our AML programme, and the fight against financial crime is a key priority for Nordea,” says Jamie Graham, Chief Compliance Officer, Nordea Group, and continues:
“We do everything we can to prevent financial crime and the bank has taken significant measures to improve financial crime processes and procedures since the period covered by DFS’s investigation. We are pleased that these remediation efforts and our extensive cooperation were also recognised by DFS.”
Nordea is a different bank today
During the past years, Nordea Bank has significantly strengthened its financial crime prevention capabilities. The focus and investments reflect the commitment to continuously improve the defence against financial crime and to adapt to new and emerging risks in the external environment. The actions taken include the following:
- Approximately EUR 1.5bn invested within risk and compliance since 2015
- Over 3,400 employees working solely on combating money laundering and other types of financial crime
- New policies, procedures and controls designed to strengthen Nordea’s AML compliance programme
- Implementation of more sophisticated prevention and detection techniques with more than 3.4 billion transactions monitored last year
- Continuous training provided to all Nordea’s employees to ensure they have the right skill set and competences.
Read more about Nordea’s efforts to fight financial crime here.
For further information:
Ilkka Ottoila, Head of Investor Relations, +358 9 5300 7058
Media inquiries, +358 10 416 8023 or press [at] nordea.com (press[at]nordea[dot]com)
We are a universal bank with a 200-year history of supporting and growing the Nordic economies – enabling dreams and aspirations for a greater good. Every day, we work to support our customers’ financial development, delivering best-in-class omnichannel customer experiences and driving sustainable change. The Nordea share is listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki, Nasdaq Copenhagen and Nasdaq Stockholm exchanges. Read more about us at nordea.com.