Spooked by money laundering scandal, SEB cuts Swedbank stake

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Swedish bank SEB's fund management arm has cut its stake in rival Swedbank by just over half, citing risks Sweden's biggest lender faces due to the alleged involvement in the fast-growing Baltic money laundering scandal.

Swedbank is under heavy criticism from politicians, investors and also the average man or woman over allegations that the Baltic operations processed billions of dollars of transactions linked with Russian money laundering.

The scandal, which broke on Feb. 20, has ended in Swedbank's CEO and chairman leaving additionally, the launch of varied regulatory investigations on the bank.

SEB Fonder has reduced its Swedbank stake to just under One percent from around 2 percent in the past eight weeks, having sold nearly 5 million shares in March and also 7 million shares in February, in accordance with the company and dependant on data published .

Before the cut, SEB was Swedbank's 10th largest shareholder in line with Refinitiv Eikon data.

"The conclusion to reduce ownership in Swedbank may be a management decision, good information that may be gradually published about Swedbank," SEB Investment Management's head Hans Ek told Reuters by email.

He added that SEB had drawn parallels concerning price developments to companies suspected of with a lack of money laundering controls.

Swedbank shares have fallen by one third since the scandal has grown, while using the latest report suggesting its Estonian accounts managed roughly 135 billion euros of suspicious cash, predominantly from Russian clients.