Netherlands based financial co-operative Rabobank is being investigated by the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) for suspected anti-money laundering violations.
In a company statement shared on 7 December, the Netherlands’ second-largest bank announced: “The Dutch Public Prosecution Service informed Rabobank that it is considered a suspect in connection with violation of the Dutch Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act (Wet ter voorkoming van witwassen en financieren van terrorisme – Wwft) and an investigation is ongoing.”
The action taken by DNB follows a draft instruction sent to Rabobank in October 2021, which announced that a “punitive enforcement procedure” would be started. The notice also ordered the bank to remedy deficiencies in its compliance with the Dutch Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act, which relate to the “execution, recording and outsourcing of client due diligence, transaction monitoring and reporting of unusual transactions”.
Following this notice, Rabobank allocated €249m to improve its anti money laundering policy and processes.
This is not the first time the bank has run into trouble with anti money laundering regulations. In 2018, Rabobank’s subsidiary was fined over US$360m for AML violations that took place before 2014 in its California branches, and also pleaded guilty to an attempted cover up of the activity.
In the same year, the bank paid €1m to the DNB over money laundering violations that took place up to and including 2016.
Regarding the investigation currently under way, Rabobank added that it is fully cooperating with the investigation, and “cannot provide any further information at this moment”.
