The Public Prosecution Office (OM) has identified Rabobank as a suspect in a money laundering prevention investigation. The bank reported this in a press release on Wednesday.
Rabobank’s anti-money laundering policy has not been sound for some time. For this reason, the group had to pay a fine of 500,000 euros earlier. It was already clear that De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) would start the so-called implementation process due to the shortcomings.
It now appears that a criminal investigation has been opened and the bank has been designated as a suspect. Rabobank says it is cooperating fully with the investigation and does not wish to make any further statements.
In recent years, the role of banks in combating financial crimes has increased. This does not always go without a hitch. ING and ABN AMRO have already reached settlements with the Public Prosecution Service for hundreds of millions of euros.
Rabobank has recently allocated a lot of money to improve its anti-money laundering policy. According to the bank, this was necessary, for example, to clear the backlog of customer research and transaction monitoring. Thousands of people work in the bank for this.
