Scandal-hit Danske Bank’s profit plunges
Danske has promised to spend about $300m to tighten safeguards against financial crime
Cogenhagen — Danske Bank, caught up in one of the world's biggest money laundering scandals, reported a 28% drop in 2018 profit, cut its dividend and promised to spend about $300m to tighten safeguards against financial crime. The bank is being investigated in Denmark, Estonia, Britain and the US regarding €200bn worth of suspicious payments through its Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015 and could face hefty fines. Denmark's largest bank said on Friday it had seen a fall in customer satisfaction both for retail and corporate clients and that it would spend up to two-billion Danish krone ($307m) to step up anti-money-laundering efforts, such as improving IT systems and hiring compliance staff. Interim CEO Jesper Nielsen said that “2018 has been a challenging year”. He said the bank was co-operating with the US authorities about their investigations, which he said were in their early stages. He said the bank expected to spend more than 200-million Danish krone on legal fees in 2019...
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