The Dutch bank ING has again been embarrassed by dubious money flows, this time by involvement in the funneling of money from Russia to the West. In 2018, the bank reached a settlement because it had poorly organized checks on money laundering.
This morning the FD and Trouw write on the basis of American state secret documents and reports of suspicious transactions, that the Polish ING subsidiary Bank Slaski has been involved in so-called mirror transactions for years. This allows assets to be moved from a country.
Bond traders
According to the FD, two ‘obscure’ Dutch bond traders who banked at Bank Slaski for years are the key players in this capital flight. In 2014 and 2015 alone, they would have transferred more than $ 675 million to offshore companies in a network set up to channel capital out of Russia.
The customer relationship with one of them, Schildershoven Finance, was already ended in 2018. ING is in the process of saying goodbye to the Dutch company Tristane Capital.
Settlement
Mirror transactions are not prohibited, but banks that facilitate them are subject to strict anti-money laundering obligations. Deutsche Bank was fined 630 million euros in 2017 for non-compliance, the FD writes.
In 2017, ING had to reach a settlement of 775 million euros due to inadequate checks on money laundering. Since then, the bank has been working with a program to better recognize and combat money laundering and other financial crime. “These are transactions from the years before,” sources at the bank tell the ANP news agency.
Share price fall ING
Investors are not impressed by that defense. On the Amsterdam stock exchange, ING’s price plummeted in morning trading. Just after 10 a.m., the share recorded a loss of 7.6 percent, at 6.10 euros.
That fall was much stronger than the general stock market sentiment, which was also negative. The AEX index recorded a loss of 1.6 percent.
Customer dumping is not easy
ING emphasizes that four thousand employees now supervise transactions. The bank says it cannot answer the question why one of the two disputed companies nevertheless still bank with ING, because it is not allowed to comment on individual customer contacts.
“In general, you are not 1, 2, 3 away from a customer who does such a thing. That is a careful process, in which you have to discuss implementation with parties,” said a spokesperson.
