DNKEY - Danske Bank A/S
| Previous Close | 7.09 |
| Open | 7.11 |
| Bid | 0.00 x 0 |
| Ask | 0.00 x 0 |
| Day's Range | 7.11 - 7.15 |
| 52 Week Range | 6.38 - 10.84 |
| Volume | 35,645 |
| Avg. Volume | 68,629 |
| Market Cap | 12.258B |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | 0.46 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 5.03 |
| EPS (TTM) | 1.42 |
| Earnings Date | N/A |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | 0.65 (9.11%) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | 2019-03-19 |
| 1y Target Est | 2.50 |
- Reuters
Exclusive: U.S. digs deeper into Deutsche role in Danske money laundering scandal - sources
FRANKFURT/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice has in recent weeks stepped up its investigation into Deutsche Bank's role in the 200 billion euro ($220 billion) Danske Bank money laundering scandal, four people familiar with the inquiry told Reuters. One source said the DoJ's new line of inquiry is whetherDeutsche helped move tainted money from Danske , Denmark's largest lender, into the United States. Officials from the DoJ, who have been working closely withEstonian prosecutors for around a year, have also beguncooperating with Frankfurt state prosecutors, the sources said.
- MarketWatch
Danske Bank says it's been charged with misselling investment advisory services
Danske Bank said it's been preliminarily charged by the Danish State Prosecutor for Serious Economic and International Crime with misselling about 8.8 billion Danish kroner ($1.3 billion) of investment advisory services. A criminal complaint had been filed in August. Danske Bank said it found that customers who invested in a product during a certain period between 2017 and 2018 paid fees that were too high as a result of misguided management decision. "We agree that this is a serious matter and that we have not lived up to what our customers should rightfully expect of us. We are compensating all affected customers, just as we are taking the steps necessary to ensure that something like this will not happen again," said CEO Chris Vogelzang.
- Bloomberg
Bankers in $220 Billion Scandal Offered Gold to Hide Client Cash
(Bloomberg) -- At the height of the Danske Bank A/S dirty-money scandal, the lender started offering gold bars to wealthy clients to help them keep their fortunes hidden, according to documents seen by Bloomberg.The bank’s Estonian branch, which was already wiring billions of client dollars to offshore accounts, told a select group of customers, mostly from Russia, that they could now also convert their money into gold bars and coins, according to the documents, which date back to the middle of 2012.Aside from offering a hedge against risk, Danske pitched gold as a way for clients to achieve “anonymity,” according to the documents. It also said that using gold ensured “portability” of assets, according to an internal presentation dated June 2012.A spokesman for Danske Bank declined to comment. In Danske’s September 2018 tell-all report on its non-resident unit, the bank listed the services it provided to clients. Aside from payments, these included setting up foreign-exchange lines, as well as bond and securities trading. The bank didn’t list the sale of gold bars.Danske Bank, which is being investigated across Europe and in the U.S. after failing to screen about $220 billion that gushed through its non-resident unit in Estonia from 2007 to 2015, has now shuttered the operations at the heart of the scandal. That’s after local authorities kicked Danske out, as the scope of the affair became clear.Jakob Dedenroth Bernhoft, a Copenhagen-based lawyer who specializes in compliance and money laundering issues, said, “It puzzles me that the bank’s own report on the case didn’t discover this. This is a service that is completely against all anti money-laundering laws. It is definitely suspicious.”“Gold is a great asset for money laundering as it has a steady value,” he said. “You can sell it without losing much value and you get cash and a receipt in hand. If you buy a car or something like that, the value drops immediately.”Gold plays a special role in the historic ties between Russia and Estonia, which gained independence after WWI only to be swallowed up by the Soviet Union in 1940. A century ago, communists fresh from the Russian revolution used Estonia as a bridge to channel vast quantities of gold taken from the murdered family of Czar Nicholas II into the West.In the early 1920s, about 700 tons of Czarist coins dodged a western blockade by passing through Tallinn with the knowledge of the country’s leaders, before heading for Scandinavia and the U.K. Today’s Russian elite may have used the same path.It’s not known how much gold Danske managed to sell while the now defunct Estonian unit was still running. But according to an internal email seen by Bloomberg, at least some clients used the service. Local private banking clients were also offered the service.For gold bars weighing 250 grams or more, clients at Danske’s non-resident unit could obtain the precious metal without a sealed pack or paper certificates. Anti-money laundering approval was needed before customers could collect the gold, but such approvals weren’t necessary if the gold was kept in long-term storage, according to the documents.One Danske Bank presentation seen by Bloomberg and dated June 2012, when gold was trading close to an all-time high, told prospective clients that “the product is not being advertised publicly or in the media.” There’s no evidence that Danske continued to offer the service after 2013, when the price of gold tanked.According to documents seen by Bloomberg, Danske’s Estonian branch sourced its gold from two partners, depending on the size of orders. One partner handled orders that exceeded 300,000 euros, equivalent to 6 kilograms at the time, and bought the gold from the Austrian mint; the other was used for smaller orders, according to the presentation, which didn’t name the suppliers. Danske charged a fee of 0.5% on larger orders, while smaller orders had a commission of as much as 4%.Some of the documents promoting gold bars are signed by Howard Wilkinson, the whistleblower who brought the Danske Bank laundering scandal into the public light. His lawyer, Stephen Kohn, didn’t immediately comment on the matter when contacted by Bloomberg.Danske Bank is being investigated by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission in the U.S. In Europe, it’s the target of criminal probes by prosecutors in Denmark, Estonia and France. The bank has also had several class-action lawsuits brought against it, and its former chief executive officer, Thomas Borgen, is under preliminary criminal investigation in Denmark, along with many other former directors at Danske.(Adds comment from lawyer.)\--With assistance from Morten Buttler.To contact the reporters on this story: Irina Reznik in Moscow at ireznik@bloomberg.net;Ott Ummelas in Tallinn at oummelas@bloomberg.net;Frances Schwartzkopff in Copenhagen at fschwartzko1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, ;Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Tasneem Hanfi Brögger, Alan KatzFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- MarketWatch
European stocks end higher for fourth week on positive U.S., Chinese data
EUROPE MARKETS European stocks advanced on Friday after surprisingly strong data in both the U.S. and China The Stoxx Europe 600 (XX:SXXP) rose 0.68% to 399.43, with the index rising for the fourth week in a row to settle at the highest value since Jan.
- MarketWatch
Danske Bank sees profit at lower end of range as money laundering probes continue
The bank is being investigated by Estonia, Denmark, France and the U.S. over allegations that around $230 billion in suspicious funds from Russia and other former Soviet states entered Europe through its tiny branch in Estonia.
- Reuters
Danske Bank tempers full-year profit expectations, unveils plan to control costs
Danske Bank shares fell more than 4% on Friday after the troubled lender said its annual profit would come in at the low end of forecasts, and unveiled plans to get costs and compliance under control by 2023. "We need to be a substantially more effective bank," chief financial officer Jacob Aarup-Andersen told Reuters.
- Reuters
More investors join U.S. lawsuit against Danske Bank
A group of 64 institutional investors has joined an existing U.S. lawsuit against Danske Bank over a $200 billion money laundering scandal, the law firms behind the action said in a statement on Monday. Danske Bank is under investigation in several countries including the United States over 200 billion euros ($220 billion) in payments made through its small branch in Estonia between 2007 and 2015, many of which the bank has said were suspicious. U.S. law firms Grant & Eisenhofer and DRRT, now representing 232 pension funds and other investors, said claims against the bank for economic losses resulting from the alleged money laundering now total nearly $800 million.
- Reuters
Exclusive: Deutsche Bank took years to flag suspect Danske money flows - source
FRANKFURT/TALLINN (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank did not disclose more than one million suspect money transfers with Danske Bank until February, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said, about five years after a whistleblower flagged suspicious transactions at Danske. Deutsche sent alerts about the suspect money flows involving the Danish bank to Germany's money laundering data authority and state prosecutors, the person said, prompting investigators to seek more information from Deutsche. Prosecutors are now investigating whether staff or management at Deutsche sanctioned the transactions, and whether they subsequently tried to cover them up, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
- Reuters
Danske Bank closes down its banking activities in Estonia
Danske Bank said its Estonian business had entered into liquidation on Tuesday after the country's financial regulator in February ordered it to close its branch at the center of one of the largest ever money laundering scandals. "Danske Bank has now essentially closed all banking activities in Estonia in accordance with the plan agreed with the Estonian FSA," said Executive Vice President and chairman of the Liquidation Committee, Frederik Bjoern, in a statement. All Danske Bank logos and signs will be removed from the head office building in Tallinn in the coming days, it said.
- Reuters
Former Danske Estonia boss found dead amid money laundering inquiry
A former head of Danske Bank's Estonian branch, which is at the centre of inquiries into the world's largest money laundering scandal, was found dead on Wednesday. Police in Estonia discovered the body of Aivar Rehe, who ran the Danish bank's Estonian business between 2007 and 2015 and had been among those questioned as a witness in a probe by Estonian prosecutors, following a search which began on Monday. Danske Bank, Denmark's largest lender, is under investigation in several countries, including the United States, Denmark, Britain and Estonia, over suspicious payments totalling 200 billion euros ($220 billion) which were moved through its tiny Estonian branch during the period Rehe was in charge.
- Reuters
UPDATE 3-Former Danske Estonia boss found dead amid money laundering inquiry
A former head of Danske Bank's Estonian branch, which is at the centre of inquiries into the world's largest money laundering scandal, was found dead on Wednesday. Police in Estonia discovered the body of Aivar Rehe, who ran the Danish bank's Estonian business between 2007 and 2015 and had been among those questioned as a witness in a probe by Estonian prosecutors, following a search which began on Monday. Danske Bank, Denmark's largest lender, is under investigation in several countries, including the United States, Denmark, Britain and Estonia, over suspicious payments totalling 200 billion euros ($220 billion) which were moved through its tiny Estonian branch during the period Rehe was in charge.
