Swedbank books $3.7 million provision over US investigation

OSLO (Reuters) – Swedbank will book a provision of 40 million Swedish crowns ($3.72 million) related to an investigation by the U.S. Office for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) over the banks “historical shortcomings”, the bank said on Friday.

The U.S. Treasurys OFAC is investigating “transactions that the bank has notified the authority about”, Swedbank said in a statement.

“We can now assess the financial impact. The dialogue with OFAC is good. But we cannot say when it will be concluded,” said Tomas Hedberg, Swedbanks deputy CEO.

Separate investigations by the Department of Justice (DoJ), the Securities and Exchange commission (SEC) and the Department of Financial Services in New York (DFS), are still ongoing, the bank said.

“Swedbank is holding separate discussions with them through our U.S. legal advisors,” it added.

The investigations are at different stages and the bank cannot at this time determine any financial consequences, nor when the investigations will be completed.

($1 = 10.7476 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Essi Lehto)