Having anti-money laundering procedures in place have become increasingly important over the past few years. However, it seems ABN Amro may have failed in this regard.
The Dutch bank is investigated by prosecutors for allegedly failing to do due diligence on clients for years, opening the bank up for being used for money laundering.
Reuters reports that ABN Amro’s shares dropped by 9% as the news broke that the bank had been notified by the authorities about the investigation on Wednesday September 25.
A spokesperson for the bank has stated that ABN Amro has made it a top priority to improve its AML procedures. However, he also stated that the bank had been expecting an investigation like this for a while.
While it is unclear exactly what the scope of the investigation is, prosecutors have stated that they believe ABN Amro failed to report suspicious transactions in time, if at all, for a lengthy period of time.
The investigation is part of bigger crackdown on the Dutch banking system. Prosecutors slammed ING ING.AS with a $900m fine last year for failing to detect the financing of illegal activities being conducted through its system.
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