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Bloomberg
Danske Bank A/S has removed its chief executive officer with immediate effect after his role in one of Europe’s worst money laundering scandals left a number of shareholders indignant at his continued presence.
Thomas Borgen was stripped of his CEO title on Monday, after the board appointed insider Jesper Nielsen to take over the job until a permanent replacement is found.
Borgen already announced his resignation last month, but had intended to stay on until a long-term successor was named.
The European Union is trying to come to grips with the stunning string of revelations surrounding the dirty money saga. Danske’s admission that a large part of about 200 billion euros, or $235 billion, that flowed through a tiny Estonian unit was probably laundered has sent shock waves through Denmark’s parliament, with criminal investigations now under way. The scandal has also triggered a European investigation into Danske’s local regulators.
The decision to give the interim CEO job to Nielsen, who’s been with Danske since 1996, most recently as its head of Danish banking, shows it was a matter of “urgency†for the board to remove Borgen from the bank, according to Per Hansen, an investment economist at Nordnet in Copenhagen.
“Danske Bank probably decided that it was important to start the post-Borgen era as quickly as possible,†he said.
Shares in Danske traded about 1 percent higher in Copenhagen on Monday.