Danske Bank Faces More Penalties From Regulator, Government Says

(Bloomberg) -- Danske Bank A/S faces more penalties from the financial regulator as multiple probes into one of Europe’s biggest money laundering scandals get under way, according to Denmark’s government.

The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority already forced Danske to add almost $800 million to its capital burden back in May, in response to earlier signs of laundering breaches. Business Minister Rasmus Jarlov said on Tuesday that the FSA may need to apply further penalties. This would be separate from a fine as high as $630 million that Jarlov has said Danske may face in Denmark. It’s still unclear whether other jurisdictions will weigh in.

Denmark’s political establishment is struggling to come to terms with the scandal, which has already triggered at least two criminal investigations into Danske. Denmark’s FSA is itself being investigated by the European Banking Authority, which will try to find out whether the agency did everything it could to catch the lender’s laundering failures.

Jarlov said he’s seen no indication that Denmark’s FSA did anything wrong. Meanwhile, the agency is investigating whether Danske broke the law by providing misleading information relating to its involvement in money laundering, he said. Jarlov also said the regulator will look into the extent that Danske’s auditors did their job properly.

To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Levring in Copenhagen at plevring1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tasneem Hanfi Brögger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net

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