Nordea bank accused of money laundering totalling $3.7bn

Danish authorities on Friday accused the Finland-based Nordea bank with failing to take action to prevent more than $3.5 billion in money laundering by clients in Russia.

After years of investigations, the Danish Special Crime Unit (NSK) indicted the bank for extensive violations of the country's Money Laundering Act from 2012 to 2015.

"Nordea failed to adequately investigate the bank's Russian customers' transactions and ignored warnings about transactions to exchange offices in Copenhagen," the NSK said.

The indictment covers transactions totalling just over 26 billion kroner ($3.7 billion). It was not clear when the case would be brought before the district court in Copenhagen.

Nordea expressed regret at the outcome of the investigation and contested the NSK's assessment.

"The bank has admitted several times in the past that there were shortcomings in the systems and processes for combating white-collar crime at the time," Nordea said in a statement.

"Nordea apologizes for the failings and expects to be fined," it added, while noting that some of the case dates back more than a decade but was now being assessed on the basis of later legislation.

According to Nordea, it has invested 11 billion kroner in combatting money laundering and other crime since 2015.

The NSK said this was the most comprehensive indictment of money laundering offences in the banking sector in Denmark to date. However, no grounds had been found to indict individuals in the case.