The big bank's Latvian subsidiary Swedbank Latvija confirms that employees have been prosecuted for suspected money laundering crimes. The bank also states that they have contributed to the disclosure of the suspected crimes, according to a press release sent out earlier this week.

Large currency transactions

It was in 2017 that the bank discovered suspicious transactions, information that was handed over to financial authorities in Latvia. Following an investigation, this has now led prosecutors to prosecute several people, including former bank employees, according to Swedbank.

According to Swedbank, the suspects in the staff violated the bank's current regulations regarding customer knowledge, which enabled customers to carry out large currency exchange transactions in cash without revealing their identity. Also, no checks were carried out on where the cash that was exchanged came from.

Those involved, in several offices in Latvia, have since been dismissed and several of them have now been prosecuted, according to Swedbank, who adds that the bank cooperates with the authorities.

Swedbank has tightened its control system since 2017, which according to the bank means that it is no longer possible to carry out cash currency exchange transactions.

Suspected insider crime

In early 2019, extensive problems with money laundering in Swedbank's Baltic operations were revealed by SVT's Assignment Review. Finansinspektionen (FI) investigated Swedbank and fined the bank earlier this year, which had to pay SEK 4 billion for deficiencies in the work against money laundering.

Former CEO Birgitte Bonnesen was fired shortly after the disclosure, in conjunction with the bank's Annual General Meeting 2019, and she has since been included in an investigation by the Swedish Eco-Crime Authority on suspected insider crime with connection to the money laundering incident.