meta_id 3331236

On July 15, 2026, the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) executed a consent order with Swedbank AB (publ) and its New York Branch, resolving an enforcement action stemming from the bank's failure to provide complete information in response to multiple regulatory requests concerning the Panama Papers scandal. The DFS initiated its investigation following the April 2016 leak of documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca & Co., which exposed connections between global financial institutions and offshore entities used for illicit purposes. On April 19, 2016, the DFS issued its first request for information to Swedbank and its New York Branch regarding any connections to Mossack Fonseca. The New York Branch responded on April 27, 2016, claiming it was unaware of such connections. However, Swedbank's home office possessed responsive information at that time, including connections between customers of its Baltic subsidiaries—Swedbank Estonia, Swedbank Latvia, and Swedbank Lithuania—and Mossack Fonseca. On February 21, 2018, the DFS issued a follow-up request explicitly covering the bank's global operations. During a March 1, 2018 call, Swedbank's external counsel represented that the bank would search its home office and global branch network for responsive information. Swedbank deliberately excluded its Baltic subsidiaries from this review, despite internal communications acknowledging the DFS request encompassed them. The bank's chief compliance officer stated in email correspondence that she wanted to "remove them out of the scope" to prevent regulators from focusing on Baltic operations. Swedbank submitted responses on March 26 and April 14, 2018, omitting all information regarding its Baltic subsidiaries' Mossack Fonseca connections and failing to disclose regulatory inquiries from Estonian and Swedish authorities. The DFS learned of these omissions through media reports in early 2019 and issued a third request on February 20, 2019. Swedbank's March 6, 2019 response finally provided substantive documents regarding the Baltic subsidiaries. Under the consent order, Swedbank and its New York Branch must pay a civil monetary penalty of fifty million dollars within ten days. The order requires full cooperation with the DFS and prohibits the bank from claiming tax deductions related to the penalty payment.