Danske’s France settlement ends final probe over suspected money laundering

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Danske Bank has reached a settlement with French authorities to end the final in a series of probes in multiple countries over suspected money laundering at its former branch in Estonia, the Danish bank said on Wednesday.

Danske agreed to pay 6.33 million euros ($7.0 million) to settle an investigation in France, a fraction of the more than $2 billion it agreed to pay to end probes in the United States last year.

The bank became the subject of several investigations after an internal probe in September 2018 uncovered about 200 billion euros of payments made through its now-shuttered Estonian branch, with many payments appearing suspicious.

French authorities began a formal investigation in 2019.

“We are pleased to have reached this resolution with the French National Financial Prosecutor,” Danske’s senior general counsel, Niels Heering, said in a statement.

This probe marked “the final investigation into the bank by any authority related to the non-resident portfolio at Danske Bank’s former Estonia branch”, Heering said.

The financial impact of the resolution with French authorities had already been provisioned for, Danske said.

Article Credit: https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/danske-bank-reaches-settlement-france-092947288.html