Danske Bank projects $2.1B settlement for Estonia money laundering probes

Danske Bank expects to pay a total of 15.5 billion Danish kroner (U.S. $2.1 billion) to U.S. and Danish authorities to settle allegations it overlooked more than $200 billion in dirty money laundered through its former Estonia branch.

An agreement with authorities is not final regarding what is considered to be one of the world’s largest money laundering scandals but close enough that the bank “can reliably estimate” the size of the penalties, Danske Bank Chief Executive Carsten Egeriis said in a statement accompanying the bank’s interim report for the first nine months of 2022 published Thursday.

The bank booked a provision DKK 14 billion (U.S. $1.9 billion) in the third quarter of 2022, Egeriis said. That activity “significantly impacted” the bank’s financial result for the nine months, with a net loss of DKK 9.2 billion (U.S. $1.2 billion).