Financial Crime Types in Sweden: Police and Banks Unite to Combat Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing

Stockholm, Sweden - In an effort to combat financial crime, the Swedish police authority has joined forces with five of the country’s largest banks to launch the Swedish Anti-Money Laundering Initiative (SAMLIT).

Improving Society’s Ability to Fight Organized Crime

According to Martin Johansson, senior advisor at SEB, the initiative aims to improve society’s ability to fight and prevent organized crime. “We will get better insights into suspicious transaction patterns in our continued work against money laundering, terrorism financing and other types of economic crime,” he said.

Pilot Project and Goal for Official Implementation

The pilot project, which began in June 2020 and is set to run until November 2020, will evaluate and test new methods for sharing information between the Financial Police and the five banks. The goal is to officially implement SAMLIT by 2021, with more banks expected to join the scheme.

Under the initiative, the Financial Police and the banks will share information on:

Methods
Suspicious transaction patterns
New types of crime that have been jointly identified

“By sharing more information with each other, we believe that crimes will be detected at an earlier stage but also that we will be able to prevent them from ever being committed,” said Linda H Staaf, head of the intelligence unit at the police’s National Operations Department.

Broader Efforts by Banks to Combat Financial Crime

The collaboration is part of a wider effort by Danske Bank, Handelsbanken, Nordea, SEB and Swedbank to combat financial crime. The banks have been working together with supervisory authorities and other banks across the Nordics and in Europe to develop new methods for combating money laundering and terrorism financing.

International Cooperation

In Denmark, Danske Bank has collaborated with Finance Denmark to develop 25 joint recommendations for improving efforts to combat financial crime. On a Nordic level, the bank is developing a platform for handling and administering KYC data with the five largest banks in the region. The bank is also represented in a European AML taskforce, led by the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS), to develop recommendations for an improved EU regulatory framework on anti-money laundering.

Evolution of Financial Crime

The initiative comes as financial crime continues to evolve and adapt to new methods and technologies. “Like a chameleon, this type of crime is constantly changing form and pattern,” said Johanna Norberg, country manager at Danske Bank Sweden. “For us, this collaboration means increased efficiency and proactivity.”