https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/swedish-regulator-to-delay-decision-of-seb-money-laundering-probe-20200326

Sweden’s financial supervisory authority has delayed the conclusion of an anti-money laundering assessment of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The assessment of the Swedish bank was expected to conclude in April, but the Swedish FSA, known as the Finansinspektionen, said Wednesday that it was now planning to issue its decision in June.

The spread of the novel coronavirus has caused the FSA to adjust its priorities, the regulator said in a statement. It is focusing on responding to the economic fallout from the pandemic, a spokeswoman said.

The FSA said in December that it was considering issuing sanctions against SEB related to an investigation into the lender’s governance and control of measures to combat money laundering in the Baltics. The FSA’s investigation was being conducted in cooperation with the financial supervisory authorities in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the regulator said at the time.

An SEB spokesman acknowledged the FSA’s statement. “We fully understand that the urgent crisis management due to the corona pandemic takes a lot of time for the regulator,” the spokesman, Frank Hojem, said. “We’ll now await the decision in June.”

SEB and another Swedish lender, Swedbank, came under investigation by the FSA after reports by Swedish TV network SVT alleged large-scale money laundering throughout the banks’ branches in the Baltics.

The FSA last week found that Swedbank’s Baltic operations suffered from serious anti-money laundering deficiencies, and fined the lender 4bn Swedish kronor ($397m).