Coronavirus Prompts Swedish Regulator to Delay Decision on SEB Probe
26 March 2020 - 9:46AM
Dow Jones News
By Dylan Tokar
Sweden's financial supervisory authority has delayed the
conclusion of an anti-money laundering assessment of Skandinaviska
Enskilda Banken AB due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The assessment of the Swedish bank was expected to conclude in
April, but the Swedish FSA, known as the Finansinspektionen, said
Wednesday that it was now planning to issue its decision in
June.
The spread of the novel coronavirus has caused the FSA to adjust
its priorities, the regulator said in a statement. It is focusing
on responding to the economic fallout from the pandemic, a
spokeswoman said.
The FSA said in December that it was considering issuing
sanctions against SEB related to an investigation into the lender's
governance and control of measures to combat money laundering in
the Baltics. The FSA's investigation was being conducted in
cooperation with the financial supervisory authorities in Estonia,
Latvia and Lithuania, the regulator said at the time.
An SEB spokesman acknowledged the FSA's statement. "We fully
understand that the urgent crisis management due to the corona
pandemic takes a lot of time for the regulator," the spokesman,
Frank Hojem, said. "We'll now await the decision in June."
SEB and another Swedish lender, Swedbank AB, came under
investigation by the FSA after reports by Swedish TV network SVT
alleged large-scale money laundering throughout the banks' branches
in the Baltics.
The FSA last week found that Swedbank's Baltic operations
suffered from serious anti-money laundering deficiencies, and fined
the lender 4 billion Swedish kronor ($397 million).
-- Dominic Chopping contributed to this article.
Write to Dylan Tokar at dylan.tokar@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 25, 2020 18:31 ET (22:31 GMT)
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