In a bid to curb money laundering either through intentional deed or slack in the control system of the banks, it has been revealed that a fine of 1.79 million euros equivalent to $1.99 million has been slapped on Sweden’s SEB by The Financial and Capital Market Commission in Latvia.
This came as an inspection conducted on SEB in 2017 revealed that the internal control systems for the prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing seemed so weak and needs rapt improvement, though SEB that happened to be the third-largest lender in Latvia, has claimed that it had addressed the issue of alleged violations of financial law by working on an action plan.
SEB would not be the first financial institution to be sanctioned for violation of the financial law as many banks have been sanctioned by Latvia owing to its firm resolution to clean up its banking sector following several scandals because the nation is preparing for a review by Moneyval- the money laundering and terrorism financing body of the Council of Europe in 2020. In fact, bank, ABVL was shut down last year due to the report that came from United States authorities accusing the bank of money laundering. The tsunami of the fight against financial-related crime is even hitting the outgoing Central Bank Governor, Ilmars Rimsevics as he is battling charges of bribery and money laundering.
