The decision to open the sanction case is itself part of the FSA’s investigative process, reports BNS, with the FSA considering that there are sufficient grounds to assess whether to proceed with a sanction or terminate the case. investigation in another way, being the key.

The FSA must continue to analyze the circumstances and legal issues until it reaches the next step in the sanctioning process, according to BNS, after which the authority will write a formal letter to SEB outlining its observations and any legal grounds for considering intervention.

The letter will also seek the bank’s opinion on the matter, the FSA said on Wednesday.

The Swedish FSA will announce the outcome of the sanction case in SEB’s investigation in April 2020, BNS reports, a month after it is expected to do the same for another Swedish bank, Swedbank.

In late November, media reported that potentially suspicious transactions worth tens of billions of euros had passed through the Estonian branch of Swedish bank SEB during the period 2005-2018. As with the other two high-profile money laundering cases that have affected Estonian branches of Scandinavian banks in recent years, Swedbank and

This followed an approach by SEB by the Swedish public broadcaster SVT, which claimed it had information regarding potential money laundering activities.

In March, an internal Swedbank report found that around € 135 billion in high-risk money had passed through the bank’s Estonian branch over a 10-year period. SVT has also played a role in bringing this information to the attention of the public.

The period roughly coincided with the 160 billion euros in potentially illicit funds that are said to have passed through Danske Estonia, which is due to close in October, between 2007 and 2015.

The SEB investigation is being carried out in cooperation with the supervisory authorities of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, with the coordination of activities and the sharing of information and assets ongoing.

SEB also said on Wednesday that it had received information from the Swedish FSA regarding the sanctions assessment process, as part of the ongoing prudential supervision, adding that it had not received the preliminary assessment behind the assessment.

“The bank did not receive the preliminary assessment from the FSA which led to the assessment. SEB is working transparently with the FSA,” SEB said in a statement.

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