Sweden’s financial regulator has announced a focused review of Swedbank’s customer due diligence procedures, covering the period from December 2023 through November 2025, the authority said on Friday. The examination will assess the bank’s controls and its processes for vetting customers as part of national anti-money-laundering requirements.
Swedbank’s shares were trading lower following the announcement, down 0.3% by 09:38 GMT.
The Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) said the review will look specifically at controls and due-diligence procedures put in place by the lender. In a statement, the FSA highlighted that - "How banks and financial companies counter risks of money laundering and terrorist financing in their operations is a priority issue in the FSA’s supervision in 2026." The regulator did not state whether this inspection is part of a regular supervision cycle or was prompted by particular concerns.
This supervisory step comes after the U.S. Department of Justice closed its money-laundering investigation into Swedbank in January without imposing a penalty. That U.S. inquiry was connected to the broader Baltic money-laundering affair that first surfaced at Danske Bank.
Swedbank has been under scrutiny over its past anti-money-laundering practices for several years. Authorities began examining the bank in 2019. The wider regional controversy was triggered when Danske Bank disclosed in 2018 that roughly e200 billion of potentially suspicious funds had passed through its Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015.
The fallout from the scandal has had a significant financial and reputational impact on Swedbank. Its shares fell by about one-third in 2020. Sweden’s financial regulator imposed a record 4 billion crown fine on the bank in 2020, citing serious shortcomings in its anti-money-laundering controls.
On the legal front, former Swedbank chief executive Birgitte Bonnesen, who led the bank from 2016 to 2019, was convicted of gross fraud in 2024 for providing misleading statements and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. Her conviction is currently under appeal at the Supreme Court.
Context and implications
The FSA review revisits Swedbank’s compliance framework at a time when the lender has recently seen the closure of a U.S. inquiry without penalty but remains tied to historical regional allegations. The outcome of the review could affect market perceptions of the bank and inform future supervisory priorities around anti-money-laundering practices.