Sweden launches new money laundering investigation into Swedbank

Swedbank is facing fresh regulatory scrutiny after Sweden’s financial watchdog launched a new investigation into the bank’s anti money laundering controls.

According to a Reuters report, the Financial Supervisory Authority said it will review whether Swedbank’s customer checks met legal requirements over a nearly two-year period.

The probe follows the closure of a US investigation earlier this year that ended without penalties.

Regulator opens probe

Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority confirmed on Friday that it will investigate Swedbank’s anti-money laundering procedures.

The review will focus on the bank’s customer due diligence measures and internal processes.

The investigation covers the period from December 2023 to November 2025.

During this time, the regulator will assess whether Swedbank properly monitored customer activity and met requirements designed to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

The authority said that ensuring banks counter financial crime risks remains a key supervisory priority.

It added that strengthening oversight of money laundering risks will continue to be a focus in 2026.

The regulator did not clarify whether the review was part of routine supervision or linked to specific concerns involving Swedbank’s compliance.

Shares react to scrutiny

Swedbank’s shares fell after news of the investigation emerged, reflecting investor sensitivity to regulatory developments. The stock declined 1.3%.

This performance contrasted with broader European banking stocks, which moved higher during the same period.

The European banking index rose 0.4%, highlighting Swedbank’s relative weakness following the announcement.

The decline shows how compliance reviews can influence investor sentiment, especially for banks previously linked to financial crime probes.

US investigation closure

The new probe comes shortly after US authorities closed a separate investigation involving Swedbank.

The US Department of Justice ended its inquiry in January without imposing fines or enforcement action.

That investigation examined alleged money laundering activities connected to a wider Baltic banking scandal.

The case was linked to events that first emerged at Danske Bank and later involved scrutiny of other financial institutions operating in the region.

Previous AML probe

Authorities opened an investigation into Swedbank in 2019 over its historical anti-money-laundering controls, after the lender became linked to a regional scandal triggered by Danske Bank’s 2018 disclosure that roughly €200 billion in potentially suspicious funds had passed through its Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015.

The fallout weighed on Swedbank’s share price, which dropped by about one-third in 2020.

Former chief executive Birgitte Bonnesen, who led the bank from 2016 to 2019, was convicted of gross fraud in 2024 for making misleading statements and received a 15-month prison sentence; the ruling is currently under appeal at the Supreme Court.

Sweden’s financial regulator had already imposed a record 4 billion-krona fine on the bank in 2020, citing serious deficiencies in its anti-money-laundering procedures.

Swedbank remains Sweden’s largest mortgage lender, making its compliance framework central to the stability and credibility of the country’s financial system.