Financial Crime World

Swedish Police and Banks Unite to Combat Financial Crime in Sweden

=============================================

In a major effort to prevent and deter 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).

Aims and Objectives

The initiative aims to improve cooperation between law enforcement and the banking sector to combat organized crime, money laundering, terrorism financing, and other types of economic crime. The pilot project is expected to be fully launched in 2021, with more banks anticipated to join the scheme.

Quotes from Industry Experts

  • “We now take the next step to make society better at fighting and preventing organized crime. For us, this means getting better insights into suspicious transaction patterns in our continued work against money laundering, terrorism financing, and other types of economic crime.” - Martin Johansson, senior advisor at SEB and lead on SAMLIT
  • “This is a very important step in the fight against financial crime. Like a chameleon, this type of crime is constantly changing form and pattern, so for us, this collaboration means increased efficiency and proactivity.” - Johanna Norberg, country manager at Danske Bank Sweden

How it Works

The Money Laundering Act empowers the police authority to request information from banks bilaterally, but under SAMLIT, the Financial Police and the five participating banks will be able to collectively share information on:

  • Methods used by criminal organizations
  • Suspicious transaction patterns
  • New types of crime that have been jointly identified

Pilot Project

A pilot project is set to run from June to November 2020 to evaluate and test new methods for sharing information under current legislation. The initiative is expected to lead to:

  • Earlier detection and prevention of crimes
  • Improved collaboration between law enforcement and the banking sector

Ongoing Cooperation

The Swedish Anti Money Laundering Initiative is part of Danske Bank’s ongoing cooperation with supervisory authorities and other banks across the Nordics and in Europe. The bank has already collaborated on:

  • 25 joint recommendations for improving efforts to combat financial crime (Finance Denmark)
  • A platform for handling and administering KYC data with the five largest banks in the Nordics
  • 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.