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Commerzbank also appears in the so-called “FinCEN files” of a US Treasury data leak, revealing a problematic role that banks play in the fight against money laundering.
As Buzzfeed News reports, Commerzbank has worked for years with individuals and companies on sanctions lists and has passed hundreds of millions of euros to companies and individuals accused of financing terrorism or money laundering. According to Commerzbank, this is not new.
The complexes in question are “known and based entirely on reports made by Commerzbank to the responsible authorities mainly in the period 2010 to 2016,” the bank said at the request of Dow Jones Newswires. Commerzbank has strengthened its compliance since 2015 with investments of more than 800 million euros and has significantly increased the number of employees. The bank declined to comment on relationships with individual clients.
The bank’s improvement in compliance will be based on the fact that the 2019 monitor used by US authorities for its review has ended, the bank said. Furthermore, the so-called “Deferred Prosecution Agreements” with the US authorities were terminated in 2018 without further conditions. Commerzbank has also cooperated with the British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA investigation for the period 2012 to 2017, which has now been completed, did not reveal any criminal conduct by the bank.
In 2015, the US authorities ordered Commerzbank to pay nearly $ 1.5 billion to settle allegations of money laundering and violation of US sanctions.
The Federal Finance Ministry told Buzzfeed that federal representatives on Commerzbank’s supervisory board “would closely monitor whether further adjustments to Commerzbank’s compliance system are required as part of their independent mandate.” A Commerzbank spokeswoman declined to comment.
Financial supervisory authority Bafin informed Buzzfeed that it would verify information in Fincen’s files and investigate any evidence of deficits in money laundering prevention at Commerzbank.
The Fincen-Files are more than 2,100 reports of suspicious money laundering transactions from the years 2000 to 2017. The US online medium Buzzfeed News shared the documents with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and therefore a worldwide investigation of 110 media. made possible from 88 countries. In Germany, in addition to Buzzfeed, WDR, NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung are involved in the investigation.
Commerzbank shares are currently falling through XETRA by 5.56 percent to 4.23 euros.
FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)
Image Source: Frank Gaertner / Shutterstock.com, Vytautas Kielaitis / Shutterstock.com
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