Danske Bank

This article is about a commercial bank. For the Danish central bank, see Danmarks Nationalbank.

Danske Bank A/S
Company typePublic Aktieselskab
Nasdaq Copenhagen: DANSKE
ISINDK0010274414 Edit this on Wikidata
IndustryFinancial services
Founded5 October 1871; 153 years ago (1871-10-05)
HeadquartersCopenhagen, Denmark
Key people
ProductsBanking, insurance, investment management
RevenueIncrease 52.45 kr. billion (2023)[1]
Increase 21.26 kr. billion (2023)[1]
Total assetsDecrease 3,771 kr. billion (2023)[1]
Total equityIncrease 175.7 kr. billion (2023)[1]
OwnerMøller family (21%)[1]
Number of employees
20,021 (FTE, 2023)[1]
Websitedanskebank.com

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.[2] Danske Bank was number 454 on the Fortune Global 500 list for 2011.[3] The largest shareholder with 21% of the share capital is A.P. Moller Holding,[4] the investment holding company of the Maersk family.[5]

It 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 commonly known as Landmandsbanken ("the Farmers' Bank"). In 1976, the bank changed name to Den Danske Bank ("The Danish Bank"), and the current 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.[6][7] 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.[8][9]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Annual Report 2023 Danske Bank Group" (PDF). Danske Bank. 2 February 2024. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  2. ^ "Facts and figures". Danske Bank. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  3. ^ "Fortune Global 500 (Denmark)". Fortune. 2011. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  4. ^ "Danske Bank A/S (Danske)". MarketScreener. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  5. ^ Teis Jensen, Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen (6 November 2018). "Maersk family ousts Danske Bank Chairman after scandal". Reuters. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  6. ^ Coppola, Frances (26 September 2018). "The Tiny Bank At The Heart Of Europe's Largest Money Laundering Scandal". Forbes. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
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  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).