COPENHAGEN: Danske Bank, at the center of an international investigation into alleged money laundering, cut its 2018 outlook on for the second time this year, citing challenging market conditions on financial markets.
Denmark’s biggest lender said it expects net profit for the year of around 15 billion Danish crowns ($2.3 billion), down from the 16-17 billion it had previously guided.
The bank cut its net profit forecast from 18-20 billion crowns in September, after saying it would donate the 1.5 billion it had earned on suspicious transactions through its Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015.
Danske Bank’s then chief executive Thomas Borgen resigned in September after an investigation revealed payments totalling 200 billion euros ($229 billion) through its small Estonian branch, many of which the bank said were suspicious.
“The revision to the outlook is mainly the result of worsening conditions during the fourth quarter in the financial markets,” Chief Financial Officer Christian Baltzer said in a statement.
“The underlying business performance is still good,” he said.
The bank said that its non-core unit would be hit by a 200 million crown value adjustment, while the outlook for all other items on its financial statement, including net interest income, was unchanged.
($1 = 6.5072 Danish crowns) ($1 = 0.8724 euros) (Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Adrian Croft)
