ABN Amro sacks 10 managers over mortgage fraud; Over 100 staffers reprimanded

ABN Amro found a total of 114 employees guilty of falsifying signatures on mortgage advices. Most of them were reprimanded and a number were dismissed, including some managers, ANP reports. The bank did not release exact numbers, but according to Financieele Dagblad, around 10 people lost their jobs.

The bank blames the mortgage fraud on failing internal control and high job pressure, partly due to bureaucracy, reorganization and poorly functioning IT systems, according to ANP. The employees copied the signatures of customers onto mortgage advices that had to be sent for inspection at an internal quality desk. Most of these advices had already been given to the customers. But there were some cases where changes had been made and the advice needed to be resigned.

There are several reasons why the bank employees falsified customers' signatures, according to the bank. Many customers would not wait to sign the advice. And many of the advices had already been delayed through slow procedures and technological shortcomings. By copying signatures instead of trying to convince customers to come back to sign, employees could fully complete those files and achieve personal goals that had influence on their work assessment. Anxiety about being dismissed also played a role, according to the bank.

A total of just under 700 hundred files contained falsified signatures. In three cases the customer suffered limited financial damage, which has now been reimbursed. The total amount was less than 1 thousand euros.