meta_id 3600930

On October 15, 2026, the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) announced that Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB and its New York Branch (SEB) agreed to pay a $33 million penalty as part of a Consent Order resolving the DFS's investigation into the bank's compliance failures with New York Banking Law and anti-money laundering program requirements. The investigation followed the 2016 Panama Papers leak, which exposed millions of Mossack Fonseca law firm records and revealed failures by financial institutions to meet legal and compliance obligations relating to money laundering and offshore activity. The DFS subsequently launched reviews of its licensees' connections to the law firm, including SEB. The DFS investigation identified critical gaps in SEB's Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) program. Key findings included inadequate customer due diligence, failure to implement strategies mitigating heightened money laundering risk associated with high-risk clients, and deficient due diligence on high-risk correspondent banking partners, including foreign institutions. The investigation also found SEB maintained deficient client files, miscalculated anti-money laundering risk, and failed to update procedures governing correspondent bank relationships. Additionally, the DFS found SEB's transaction monitoring program in its Baltic subsidiaries in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania was deficient in detecting and blocking suspicious activity. The bank's transaction monitoring systems were backlogged, allowing transactions to evade timely review for money laundering and sanctions risks, thereby exposing the institution to processing illicit transactions. Acting Superintendent Kaitlin Asrow said financial institutions must adhere to New York's rigorous laws and regulations to safeguard financial system integrity, emphasising the DFS's commitment to holding entities accountable for failing to meet those standards. The Consent Order is available on the DFS website.