(The Hague) Dutch banking giant ING announced on Wednesday that it was being sued by investors who accuse it of financial losses linked to an agreement reached in 2018 with the courts in a money laundering investigation.
“ING and certain members of the board of directors received today (Wednesday) a subpoena in the Netherlands on behalf of investors who claim to have suffered financial losses,” the banking group said in a statement.
In March 2017, the Dutch public prosecutor opened an investigation against ING, finding it guilty of “serious failings in preventing money laundering”.
The prosecution had estimated that the bank had “failed to prevent bank accounts belonging to ING clients in the Netherlands from being used to launder hundreds of millions of euros between 2010 and 2016”.
The bank reached an agreement in September 2018 with the authorities, providing for the payment of a fine of 775 million euros (CAN 1.1 billion) to resolve this matter, which had cost the group’s financial director his job.
According to the ING press release, the summons relates to “ING’s revelations on the historical shortcomings of its policies on financial and economic crime, on the associated risk management and control systems, as well as on the investigation and the agreement with the Dutch authorities in 2018”.
The damages claimed amount to approximately 500 million euros (725 million CAN), said ING, adding that it “will defend itself” against “these allegations” and “against the damages claimed”.
The banking group employs more than 60,000 people in 40 countries.