ING pays €775 million settlement for facilitating money laundering

The Public Prosecutor reached a settlement of 775 million euros with ING. The bank allowed customers to abuse their accounts for the laundering of hundreds of millions of euros between 2010 and 2016, NOS reports.

The amount of the settlement consists of a 675 million euros fine and a reimbursement of 100 million euros. According to the Public Prosecutor, ING did not properly fulfill its role as gatekeeper of the financial system and was negligent in preventing money laundering.

In the Netherlands banks are obliged by law to report any suspicious transactions by their clients. Investigation by the Public Prosecutor and FIOD, the Tax Authority's investigative department, showed that ING failed to do this.

The FIOD investigation started in 2016. Multiple criminal investigations were conducted into individuals and companies with accounts at ING. One of the high-profile cases involved telecom company VimpelCom. The telecom paid millions of dollars in bribes to the President of Uzbekistan's daughter through its ING account. According to the Public Prosecutor, this case was exemplary of the way in which ING did business.

Dutch central bank DNB gave ING several warnings, but the bank still hasn't done enough to improve the situation, the Prosecutor said.

ING acknowledged that mistakes were made and said that measures were taken against the responsible employees, according to NOS.