Swedbank Admits AML Failures

Partner Bambos Tsiattalou comments on the recent news that Swedbank admitted to failings in its anti-money laundering work.

Bambos’ comments were published in Wealth Briefing, 18 September 2019, and can be found here.

Swedbank’s admission that it had not spent enough money to fight money laundering has drawn praise for its honesty, also adding to a saga of dirty money that has hit banks in Northern Europe in recent years.

The Swedish banking group said in a statement this week that it has offloaded clients who haven’t met regulatory tests. “Nevertheless, the bank’s anti-money laundering work has had, and still has, certain shortcomings. In the past, the bank has not allocated sufficient resources and competence to adequately manage the risk of money laundering by clients and third parties,” it said in a statement.

Bambos Tsiattalou, founding partner at specialist criminal and civil litigation firm Stokoe Partnership Solicitors, said the bank’s statement was refreshingly blunt.

“Swedbank’s confession of its `shortcomings’ and decision to hand over it’s internal report goes to show that admitting one’s failings in meeting regulatory requirements during a money-laundering inquiry of this scale is the only way to go,” Tsiattalou said