Swedbank fired its CEO on Thursday after it was alleged that the oldest bank in Sweden has links to massive money laundering involving the Baltic countries. The ouster of Birgitte Bonnesen as chief executive made her the second major Nordic bank executive to be overthrown in four months due to the scandal.
According to Bloomberg, the board members of Swedbank AB decided to terminate Bonnesen because the allegations that the bank was used to launder billions of money happened under her watch. Upon her exit, the 62-year-old would be temporarily replaced by Anders Karlsson, the company's current chief financial officer.
"The developments during the past days have created enormous pressure for the bank. Therefore, the board has decided to dismiss Birgitte Bonnesen from her position," Lars Idermark, Swedbank's board chairman, said during the shareholders' annual meeting.
He added, "It's been a dramatic morning. As chairman of the board of directors of Swedbank, I regret this deeply."
Bonnesen's dismissal was announced just a day after the Economic Crime Authority of Sweden launch a raid at Swedbank's headquarters in Stockholm. Now the authorities are also probing if some of the said financial institution's major shareholders are aware of their company's link to the money laundering scandal. There was a suspicion that 15 of Swedbank's biggest shareholders have received information regarding the issue, two days before it was even reported on television via a documentary in February.
The Saudi Gazette reported that the documentary was presented by SVT, a Swedish broadcaster. Its investigative report stated that illegal transactions amounting to KR40 billion or roughly US$4.3 billion had been transmitted to Baltic countries through suspicious Swedbank accounts.
It was alleged that suspicious bank transactions happened between the years 2007 and 2015. They have also uncovered facts that imply some of the money may have been coursed through the Danske Bank first before it reached Swedbank. Danske is being pointed at the center of this massive money laundering scandal.
Moreover, the documentary stressed Swedbank's failure to stop and tackle money laundering issues. It claimed that the bank has been careless about the approval of some of its customers that they did not even know who the real owners of the accounts are or where the cash deposits are coming from.
Immediately after this information was revealed to the public, Swedbank lost a quarter of its share value thus it was suspended from trade in Stockholm. The bank's value dropped by 30 percent since mid-January. Currently, the U.S., Latvia and Lithuania and Estonia have launched their own investigations over Swedbank's reported illegal money flows.
