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Combating money laundering and terrorist financing

DNB Bjrvika
DNB is an attractive channel for investing and transferring money and other assets. For criminals, too. Every single day, we work resolutely to protect our customers and prevent DNB from being exposed to financial crime or misused for financial crime purposes. Combating money laundering and terrorist financing is a corporate responsibility we take very seriously and invest considerable resources in.

How does DNB work to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing?

Money laundering means securing the proceeds of criminal activity and integrating this money into the legal economy. The purpose is to make it look as if the proceeds have been earned legally, and to hide the fact that they have been generated by criminal activity.  

In DNB, there are over 400 people working to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. These people include computer specialists, banking specialists, intelligence analysts and experienced investigators. A number of major projects have been carried out in recent years to strengthen DNB’s anti-money laundering efforts.

Every single day, more than seven million transactions are made to and from accounts in DNB and millions of transactions are screened through our electronic monitoring system, which detects irregular transactions. If our systems and manual routines identify payments that we are unable to explain, we will initiate an internal investigation. We have a low threshold for reporting suspicious transactions to Økokrim (the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime). In 2019, we investigated more than 5 000 matters that could indicate money laundering and sent more than 1 800 reports to Økokrim. It is Økokrim that investigates whether or not something is illegal.

In DNB, we have three lines of defence in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing:

The first line of defence is all the Group's operative functions (business areas, staff areas and support units). An important principle in anti-money laundering work is to know the customer, and it is in the first line of defence that we find all those who have direct contact with our customers. In addition, the first line of defence includes specialists in transaction monitoring and in the investigation and reporting of suspicious transactions. 

Group Risk Management  and Group Compliance constitute DNB’s second line of defence, and are independent control functions that monitor, control and follow up the managers and employees in the Group's operative functions. Group Compliance reports directly to both the CEO and the Board of Directors.

The third line of defence is Group Audit, which uses a risk-based approach to review and evaluate the Group’s processes for governance and internal control. The role of Group Audit is to carry out controls to ensure that the bank follows internal guidelines, and that the organisation is adequately equipped to comply with applicable rules and legislation.  Group Audit reports directly to both the CEO and the Chair of the Board.
Trapp i Bjrvika
 

In recent years, DNB has implemented a number of measures to strengthen the work to promote compliance with anti-money laundering rules and legislation:

  • We have a total of 400 employees working on combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
  • We have worked systematically to strengthen the professional competence in the first line of defence and the quality teams , and we have introduced measures to strengthen the daily follow-up of our anti-money laundering efforts (AML).
  • Employees who work in the area of anti-money laundering in DNB receive regular training in the anti-money laundering rules and legislation.  
  • Customer portfolios and customer information are reviewed and followed up on an ongoing basis. 
  • Our IT systems monitor all transactions, and in recent years we have invested heavily in upgrading this monitoring. 
  • DNB has established a new division, Group AML, where it has brought together and strengthened its expertise in the areas of data analysis, sanctions, anti-corruption, investigation and transaction control.
  • Group Compliance has been established as a separate area, and the Group Executive Vice President of Compliance is a member of the Group Management team. 
  • Top-level commitment to AML has been increased , and mandatory e-learning courses in anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing have been introduced for all DNB employees. 

The banks are important allies of the authorities in the work to prevent and detect money laundering.

In order to fulfil this responsibility, we are also obliged to ask our customers some questions:

  1. When you want to become a customer of DNB, we have to know who you are. We ask a number of questions and require documentation to get to know you better. Among other things, we require identification documents, we want to know where the money you deposit into the account comes from and how you plan to use your accounts. This job must be done thoroughly, which means that in some cases opening an account with us may take time, but by doing this we also reduce the risk that people with dishonest intentions misuse the bank.
  2. Based on the information you provide when you become a customer, we also follow up your customer relationship on an ongoing basis. This is done both by our employees and by our IT systems. 
  3. From time to time, we ask you questions, but this doesn’t mean that something illegal has taken place. We may also request more documentation in some cases. This is as much a matter of ensuring good and secure services for our customers as it is a matter of stopping those who have dishonest intentions.
 
The bank is neither an investigator nor a judge, but we monitor and report suspicious transactions to the police. In this area, we have a duty of confidentiality, which means that we do not inform our customers or others about what we do.
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