Swedbank Says SEC Has Closed Its Investigation Into the Bank — Update

By Dominic Chopping

STOCKHOLM--Swedbank said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has closed its investigation into the bank without enforcement, bringing to an end one of three U.S. probes into possible breaches of money-laundering rules.

The Swedish bank came under scrutiny in 2019 after a Swedish broadcaster said that billions of dollars of illicit funds might have passed through its Estonian branch. That followed an earlier money-laundering scandal at Danske Bank that revealed more than $230 billion had flowed from Russia and other former Soviet states through its Estonia branch, a large portion of which the bank said were likely illicit transactions.

Swedbank admitted to shortcomings in its work to combat money-laundering in 2019, with the SEC launching its probe the same year to examine the bank's disclosure of information related to the situation.

"With this announcement from the Securities and Exchange Commission, we are placing another investigation of historical shortcomings behind us," Swedbank Deputy Chief Executive Tomas Hedberg said in a statement Saturday.

A SEC spokesperson declined to comment on the "existence or nonexistence of a possible investigation".

Probes by the U.S. Justice Department and the Department of Financial Services in New York are still continuing and Swedbank said it can't yet assess the potential financial impact of these remaining investigations, or when they will be concluded.

In 2020, the Swedish financial supervisory authority handed Swedbank a four billion-Swedish kronor ($425.9 million) fine after saying the lender's Baltic operations had serious deficiencies in its anti-money laundering measures as well as shortcomings in its cooperation with the investigation.

Swedbank shares were 2.3% higher in afternoon Stockholm trade.

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 08, 2025 08:07 ET (12:07 GMT)