Danske Bank

Danske Bank A/S (pronounced [ˈtænˀskə ˈpɑŋˀk], lit. 'Danish Bank') is a Danish multinational banking and financial services corporation. Headquartered in Copenhagen, it is the largest bank in Denmark and a major retail bank in the northern European region with over 5 million retail customers.

As of 2020, Danske Bank's largest shareholder with 21% of the share capital was A.P. Moller Holding, the investment holding company of the Maersk family.

Danske was founded 5 October 1871 as Den Danske Landmandsbank, Hypothek- og Vexelbank i Kjøbenhavn ("The Danish Farmers' Bank, Mortgage and Exchange Bank of Copenhagen"), and was subsequently known as Landmandsbanken ("Farmers' Bank") for more than a century. In 1976, the bank changed name to Den Danske Bank ("The Danish Bank"), and the current shortened name was adopted in 2000.

Danske Bank was at the heart of what has been described as possibly the largest money laundering scandal in history when in 2017–2018 it was revealed that €800 billion of suspicious transactions had flowed through the Estonia-based bank branch of Danske Bank from 2007 to 2015. The bank was investigated by authorities in multiple countries. In 2022, Danske Bank pled guilty and agreed to a $2 billion fine in a case from the United States Department of Justice.

Operations

Danske Bank group operates a number of local banks around the Nordic region (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland) as well as in Northern Ireland. In Denmark, the major expansion occurred in 1990 after the merger with Kjøbenhavns Handelsbank and Provinsbanken.