Danske Bank chief exec quits after €200bn scandal

The chief executive of Danske Bank resigned yesterday following the publication of a report into the money-laundering scandal which has rocked the lender.

Speaking to City A.M., Thomas Borgen said it has been “clear to me for some time” that he would have to resign, after lax controls on money laundering in the banks’ Estonian operations were revealed.

The Danish bank published a report yesterday, carried out by an independent law firm into the lender’s non-resident portfolio in the Estonian branch which found thousands of suspicious accounts. The bank cannot yet release details on the number of suspicious transactions, although it noted that it has reported “almost all” of 6,200 customers with red flags so far – out of a total of 15,000 non-resident customers.

A huge €200bn (£178bn) flowed through the suspicious accounts, including 9.5 million payments in different currencies, foreign exchange lines and bond and securities trading.

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