Dutch Bank ING's CFO Quits Over Money Laundering Scandal

With the Dutch bank ING under growing pressure from a money laundering scandal, Chief Financial Officer Koos Timmermans is stepping down and leaving the executive board, with bank officials saying it was done to “further strengthen our handling of compliance risks.”

It comes after the financial prosecution service said ING for years failed to implement a law aimed at preventing money laundering and the financing of terrorism by not carrying out adequate checks on clients and not sufficiently investigating suspicious transactions, the Associated Press said. ING paid 775 million euros ($897 million) to settle the case.

ING Supervisory Board Chairman Hans Wijers said, “We came to the conclusion it is appropriate that responsibility is taken at executive board level,” after the bank said no one would take the fall for the scandal, for which no one is being prosecuted.

While the bank said it still backs CEO Ralph Hamers, the departure of Timmermans, one of his right-hand men, was seen as a concession to growing outrage over the scandal that came at the same time as another involving Denmark’s biggest bank, Danske, and other bank scandals tearing through the European Union, which is going to centralize anti-money laundering laws.

While it’s Timmermans who’s going, Hamers was ripped by politicians and shareholders this year even before the bank was fined for corrupt practices.
“Hamers still has the full support of the supervisory board,” Chairman Hans Wijers told the ANP press agency without explaining why. After initial defiance, bank officials said that it bowed to what it called “extreme reactions” from politicians and the public and blamed Timmermans.

Timmermans’ departure is “appropriate,” Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra, who earlier discussed the matter with Wijers, wrote in a letter to Parliament, the financial news agency Bloomberg said.

The Dutch investigation focused on the bank’s role in money laundering, including suspicious payments by the former VimpelCom to a company owned by an Uzbek government official and with the bank failing to report them in time.

VimpelCom, which has changed its name to Veon, pleaded guilty in 2016 to violating U.S. corruption laws. “We deeply regret the shortcomings found and take this matter very seriously,” Wijers said.