{"id":18046,"date":"2026-02-19T04:14:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/18046\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T04:14:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:14:44","slug":"danske-bank-scandal-needs-full-accountability-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/18046\/","title":{"rendered":"Danske Bank scandal needs full accountability, not\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Transparency International welcomes the European Banking Authority\u2019s decision<\/a> to investigate the Danish and Estonian financial supervisory authorities concerning their work over Danske Bank. Responding to a request<\/a> from the European Commission, the regulator announced yesterday it will seek to determine if the two have breached European Union law by failing to act upon the apparent money laundering through the Bank\u2019s accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect for this investigation to confirm that both financial supervisors have failed to protect the European Union and, by extension, our interconnected world, from dirty money,\u201d said Ma\u00edra Martini, Knowledge Coordinator at Transparency International. \u201cThe European Union will need to identify all at fault in order to learn from this bitter lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the decision, the Estonian financial supervisor promptly ordered<\/a> Danske Bank to close its notorious Tallinn branch, stating that the scandal was \u201cthe greatest blow to the transparency, trust and reputation of the Estonian financial market.\u201d<\/p>\n

While both Estonia and Denmark received good marks on the Corruption Perceptions Index 2018<\/a>, Transparency International highlighted<\/a> how countries with the cleanest public sectors have been enabling grand corruption around the world. These two countries, in particular, have become easy targets<\/a> of individuals and companies behind the illicit US$230 billion funneled through Danske Bank.<\/p>\n

In 2014, well before courageous whistleblowers and investigative journalists unveiled the Danske Bank scandal, the Estonian financial regulator had a crucial opportunity<\/a> to act when their inspections identified<\/a> the branch\u2019s failure to comply with anti-money laundering rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe response of Estonia\u2019s financial supervisory authority suggests that they do not accept responsibility for supervising banks operating in their territory,\u201d Ma\u00edra Martini argued. “Shutting the branch down years later does not absolve them of the responsibility to investigate and stop billions in dirty money from flowing freely through its accounts. They should investigate and cooperate with the authorities to identify companies and individuals behind the money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denmark\u2019s financial supervisory authorities responded<\/a> with a statement expressing disappointment that their Estonian counterparts were distancing themselves from a shared responsibility. However, it\u2019s important to emphasise that Danish authorities have a responsibility to ensure all branches of Danish banks meet anti-money laundering standards, and that investigations continue into the failings in this particular case.<\/p>\n

The scapegoating and the back-and-forth between the two authorities demonstrates the need for stronger EU-wide anti-money laundering supervision.<\/p>\n

Background<\/p>\n

The Tallinn branch of Danske Bank is at the centre of Europe\u2019s biggest money-laundering scandals. Between 2007 and 2015, around US$230 billion<\/a>, including US$2.9 billion associated with Azerbaijan\u2019s ruling elite<\/a>, of illegal money was laundered through the branch.<\/p>\n

In September 2018, the internal investigation<\/a> of Danske Bank found that its Estonian branch was \u201cmisused for suspicious transactions\u201d and that the Bank \u201creacted too late and too slowly.\u201d These findings prompted its CEO\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n

Last year, Estonian and Danish prosecutors launched criminal investigations. In November, Danske Bank was preliminarily charged <\/a>with breaking Denmark\u2019s anti-money laundering laws. Investigations in Estonia have so far resulted<\/a> into arrests of branch’s ten employees.<\/p>\n

For any press enquiries please contact<\/p>\n

E:\u202f[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>
T: +49 30 34 38 20 666<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Transparency International welcomes the European Banking Authority\u2019s decision to investigate the Danish and Estonian financial supervisory authorities concerning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[288],"tags":[12815,12834,12818,12823,12814,12819,12836,12820,12826,12827,5902,8827,12835,12828,289,12816,12825,12821,12817,12833,12831,12822,12824,12830,12829,12813,12812,12832],"class_list":{"0":"post-18046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-danske-bank","8":"tag-abuse-of-power","9":"tag-access-to-information","10":"tag-accountability","11":"tag-alac","12":"tag-anti-corruption","13":"tag-bribe","14":"tag-bribe-payers-index","15":"tag-bribery","16":"tag-civil-society-organisation","17":"tag-corporate-social-responsibility","18":"tag-corruption","19":"tag-corruption-perceptions-index","20":"tag-corruption-ranking","21":"tag-csr","22":"tag-danske-bank","23":"tag-fight-corruption","24":"tag-global-corruption-report","25":"tag-good-governance","26":"tag-integrity","27":"tag-integrity-pact","28":"tag-international-conventions","29":"tag-legal-advice-center","30":"tag-national-integrity-system","31":"tag-political-corruption","32":"tag-political-financing","33":"tag-ti","34":"tag-transparency-international","35":"tag-uncac"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}