- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Aaron Nicodemus2023-10-05T14:59:00
If you work for an organization ordered by a regulator to remediate compliance and financial crime program issues, Danske Bank Chief Compliance Officer Satnam Lehal can relate.
In December, Danske Bank reached final resolutions with Danish authorities, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Securities and Exchange Commission to address the compliance issues that allowed hundreds of billions of dollars of illicit funds to be funneled through its Estonia branch from 2007-16. Danske Bank closed its Estonia branch in 2019.
In response, Danske Bank has spent an estimated 12 billion Danish kroner (U.S. $1.7 billion) improving its financial crime program. The bank expanded its financial crime team to 3,600 full-time employees. For four years, Danske Bank has been overhauling its internal control, compliance, and financial crime functions.
Lehal joined Danske Bank in July 2019 as head of financial crime compliance and became CCO in November 2021. He announced earlier this year he will leave the bank in January. Lehal spoke with Compliance Week about lessons learned from addressing deficiencies in the bank’s compliance program while at the same time managing the expectations of regulators in two continents, the bank’s board, employees, customers, analysts, investors, and the public.
THIS IS MEMBERS-ONLY CONTENT. To continue reading, choose one of the options below.
News and analysis for the well-informed compliance or audit exec. Select an option and click continue.
Annual Membership $499 Value offer
Full price one year membership with auto-renewal.
Membership $599
One-year only, no auto-renewal.
Finland-based Nordea Bank will pay $35 million to resolve an investigation by the New York Department of Financial Services into “significant compliance failures” in its anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act program.
Chief compliance officers and chief ethics and compliance officers desire progressing to the board more than any other role change, our “Inside the Mind of the CCO” survey found. So, what does it take for compliance to get on a corporate board?
Danske Bank will appoint Chief Audit Executive Dorthe Tolborg to serve as its chief compliance officer after current CCO Satnam Lehal announced he would depart the bank in early 2024.
The U.K. has an ongoing problem with money laundering, but recent changes to economic crime law and corporate registration requirements could bring more cases to court, according to consultancy KPMG.
Enforcement actions in the first half of of 2024 by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network highlight the importance of proactive measures in Bank Secrecy Act compliance rather than just being compliant.
The U.K Financial Conduct Authority published findings showing that financial services firms are implementing its guidance on politically exposed persons related to anti-money laundering inconsistently, with experts warning firms of reputational damage arising from potential enforcement.
