HELSINKI: Shares in Nordea, the Nordic region's biggest bank, tumbled more than 5 percent on Monday after Finnish public broadcaster Yle announced it would air a program later in the day containing allegations of money-laundering through the bank.
Yle said a large data leak showed that hundreds of millions of euros from suspicious sources had moved through Nordea, without giving any specific details.
The bank's Nordic peers Swedbank and Danske Bank have both faced allegations relating to a money-laundering scandal in the Baltic nation of Estonia.
Contacted by Reuters, Nordea declined to respond but added that it would comment later in the day. Nordea CEO Casper von Koskull is scheduled to be interviewed by Finnish TV after the programme.
The Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority could not be immediately reached for comment.
Nordic financial watchdogs said in October they had received documents from Bill Browder's Hermitage Capital Management, alleging Nordea had breached its responsibilities under anti-money laundering laws. The bank said it was working closely with authorities and had reported all suspicious transactions.
Danske, Denmark's largest lender, is being investigated in five countries over some 200 billion euros ($226 billion) of suspicious payments from Russia, ex-Soviet states and elsewhere that were found to have flowed through its Estonian branch.
Swedbank is under investigation from both Estonian and Swedish regulators after a television report last month alleged that money laundering could have occurred in relation to at least 40 billion Swedish crowns ($4.30 billion) transferred between Baltics accounts at Swedbank and Danske between 2007 and 2015. - Reuters
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