Scandal-ridden Danske Bank names new CEO

[COPENHAGEN] Denmark's biggest bank Danske Bank said Friday it had appointed Chris Vogelzang as its new chief executive officer after his predecessor stepped down in October 2018 amid a money laundering scandal.

Mr Vogelzang, from the Netherlands, has held several management positions at Dutch Bank ABM AMRO and joins Danske with the bank facing criminal investigations following revelations of suspected money laundering tied to its operations in Estonia.

"He has extensive leadership and commercial experience within banking and has throughout his career managed difficult challenges and delivered good results," Karsten Dybvad, chair of the bank's board, said in a statement.

"We have a big task ahead of us in continuing to rebuild trust and at the same time developing our business in pace with customer expectations and the technological development to ensure that we remain a leading Nordic bank."

Danske Bank is the target of criminal probes in several countries over some 200 billion euros (S$306 billion) in transfers that passed through its Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015, involving some 15,000 foreign clients, many Russian.

The former CEO Thomas Borgen resigned in September last year, when the bank released the findings from an investigation conducted by the law firm Bruun and Hjejle, which detailed a "series of major deficiencies" in the bank's governance and control systems.

Since then Jesper Nielsen, who previously headed personal banking at Danske Bank, has been serving as interim CEO and will continue to do so until Mr Vogelzang takes over on June 1.

AFP