Copenhagen City Court fined the Danish branch of Nordea Bank Abp DKK 155 million on Nov. 9 for anti-money-laundering control failures, a fraction of the penalty sought by prosecutors.
Nordea said the court cleared its branch on five of seven counts and imposed the fine on the other two. Prosecutors had sought DKK 6.6 billion, according to the bank.
Denmark’s National Unit for Serious Crime said the violations involved warnings that Nordea failed to act on about transfers to currency exchange businesses in Copenhagen. The unit also cited more than 200,000 alerts that had been archived in bulk despite warranting further examination.
The charges concerned the bank’s transaction controls. Nordea said it was not charged with laundering money or helping others do so. It also said no current or former employee was suspected or charged in the case.
The investigation began after Denmark’s Financial Supervisory Authority reported Nordea to police in 2016. When prosecutors filed charges in July 2024, they said the indictment covered transactions totaling more than DKK 26 billion. They also alleged inadequate review of Russian customers’ transactions and failures to act on warnings concerning the Copenhagen exchange businesses.
Nordea said it had made sufficient provisions to cover the fine and that the verdict would have no immediate financial impact. Neither the bank nor prosecutors have announced a decision to appeal; both said they would review the judgment first.
Nordea said it has two weeks from Nov. 9 to file an initial appeal. If prosecutors appeal, the bank said it would have another two weeks to decide whether to file a counterappeal. Any appeal would be heard by Denmark’s Eastern High Court.
