Swedbank chairman resigns after scandal of money laundering

Swedbank's president resigned amid growing criticism of how the Swedish lender handled the money laundering scandal.

Lars Idermark resigned with immediate effect on Friday morning, just a week after Swedbank's board of directors sacked its managing director and his shareholders sharply criticized the directors for a scandal that cost the bank a third of its market capitalization. .

US authorities are investigating Swedbank after internal documents revealed by the Swedish public broadcaster SVT have revealed that about 135 billion euros of non-resident high-risk money – mostly from Russia – had gone through his Estonian operations for a decade.

Idermark called the recent developments "regrettable" and said the recent media attention was "inconsistent" with his role as general manager of the Sodra forestry cooperative. He will be replaced by Vice President Ulrika Francke.

"It has been difficult, given the tense situation in the media, to get support for the proportions and the facts, and to correct the direct mistakes," said Dr. Idermark. "In addition, we must always respect the confidentiality of banks and the applicable laws and regulations that a bank must follow in the markets where it operates. This added additional complexity to the appearance of the communication. "

Two of Swedbank's five major shareholders said last week that it may be necessary to hold a special meeting to elect a new board. Swedbank's board faces many questions about what she knew about the scandal and when, why she communicated so little, and why she supported Birgitte Bonnesen as executive director until it is returned.

Swedbank, the biggest lender in the Baltic countries, is closely following the scenario of Danske Bank, which suffered the same scandal of 200 billion euros of money laundering last year. The Danish bank first dismissed its managing director and then chairman after much criticism from shareholders about how it handled the scandal.

Swedbank has pledged to conduct a thorough investigation into allegations of money laundering after announcing for the first time that it will only issue a slender external investigator report heavily redacted. Mr. Idermark said at last week's annual meeting that he intended to publish the second report as much as possible.

The Swedish bank holds a leading market position in each of the three Baltic states and is also a strong player in Sweden. Estonian and Latvian regulators sounded the alarm to find out if the scandal would force Swedbank to follow Danske and Nordea out of the region.

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Swedbank was dragged over the weekend into a fierce war of words with Swedish prosecutors as a result of a report that a Norwegian lawyer had ordered from a lawyer on allegations of money laundering and that he refused to hand over. Mr Idermark told reporters last week that he had not read the report.

Idermark became president for the first time in 2010, after Swedbank faced serious difficulties after the financial crisis in the Baltic countries. He resigned in 2013 to return three years later, as the bank faced another serious scandal that resulted in the departure of its CEO and President.