Banks in Estonia have not yet plugged all the gaps in their money laundering controls, the Baltic state’s regulator told Reuters, pledging to maintain a clampdown in the country at the centre of one of Europe’s biggest financial scandals.
Estonia’s efforts to tighten money laundering controls at its banks follows a scandal at Danske Bank which has been ejected from the country after coming under investigation for €200bn (US$228bn) of suspicious transactions that flowed through its Estonian branch.
Kilvar Kessler, Estonia’s top bank supervisor, said he had also concluded an investigation of money laundering controls at Swedbank, as well as making checks on other lenders including SEB.
Kessler said his investigations had shown that, although there had been improvement in banks’ attitude to money laundering, there were “still weaknesses in the control systems”.
