By Samuel Rubenfeld 

Dutch lender ING Groep NV said Wednesday that U.S. regulators have closed their investigation into the bank after it reached a record settlement with local authorities.

The bank in a regulatory filing said it received a formal notification from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the agency had concluded its investigation, and that it wouldn't bring an enforcement action "based on information as of this date." The SEC declined to comment.

The news comes a day after ING agreed to pay a record European fine of EUR775 million ($897.3 million) to settle an investigation by Dutch prosecutors into money-laundering control failures.

Dutch authorities said they found that ING "did not properly fulfill its role as gatekeeper of our financial system," adding that "clients were able to use accounts held with ING for criminal activities for many years, virtually undisturbed."

Prosecutors began an investigation of ING in March 2016. ING not only violated Dutch anti-money-laundering law due to its compliance failures, but also was culpable of money laundering conducted by clients through the bank, Dutch prosecutors said.

The bank said in a statement Tuesday that the Dutch investigation, which it disclosed in March 2017, also had involved related information requests from U.S. authorities.

"Not meeting the required standards is unacceptable and ING takes full responsibility," the company said. "Even though our policies and procedures in the Netherlands resulted in us terminating the relationships with thousands of clients, it was not enough."

The Dutch central bank warned ING on multiple occasions, prosecutors said, noting that the central bank also had taken formal measures. Enhancement programs were put into place but weren't carried out with enough vigor, authorities said.

During its investigation, Dutch authorities focused on four cases, finding that clients in those cases were able to misuse their ING bank accounts. One involved Dutch-based telecom VimpelCom, which Dutch prosecutors said used its ING bank accounts to transfer bribes worth tens of millions of dollars to a company controlled by the daughter of the then president of Uzbekistan.

VimpelCom agreed in February 2016 to pay $795 million in penalties to U.S. and Dutch authorities to settle a bribery investigation.

Another case involved an alleged women's underwear trader who was able to launder $150 million through accounts held at ING. "It should have been clear to the bank that the monetary flows had little to do with the lingerie trade and were therefore unusual," prosecutors said.

Write to Samuel Rubenfeld at samuel.rubenfeld@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 05, 2018 16:52 ET (20:52 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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