Russia’s Dirty Money Tars Europe’s Bank Elite
Investors are selling first and asking questions later. That may be a mistake.
In a class of its own.
Photographer: Freya Ingrid Morales/BloombergEven for those who haven’t been following the vicissitudes of European banks blow by blow, the latest wave of money-laundering allegations to hit some of the region’s lenders is reason to look away in despair.
Firms from Swedbank AB to Raiffeisen Bank International are alleged to have handled a broad range of suspicious transactions involving Russian money. It will take months, if not years, for regulators and enforcers to determine which, if any, of the claims are substantiated by fact. But one firm stands out: Danske Bank A/S. Under criminal probe in the U.S. and Europe for handling $230 billion of suspicious transactions, the sheer magnitude of the allegations facing the Danish lender put in a league of its own. Whether these more recent cases are in the same category remains to be seen.