Danske Bank sacks former interim CEO over £50m fees crisis
Danske Bank plunged into a fresh crisis this morning as it fired the man who served as its interim chief executive during a money laundering scandal.
The embattled Danish bank dismissed Jesper Nielsen from his role as head of banking and his membership of the bank’s executive board.
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It blamed Nielsen for overcharging 87,000 customers by 400m Danisk krone (£47.9m) for a banking product called Flexinvest Fri, which Danske is now compensating them for.
Danske said it set the fees for Flexinvest Fri at too high a level compared to expected returns between July 2017 and 19 November 2018.
“This meant that fees were too high for all customers, and it made the product unsuitable for some customers,” Danske said.
“Every single day, we must strive to ensure that we offer our customers proper advice and products that suit their needs. This is also what customers rightfully expect from us,” chief executive Chris Vogelzang said.
“As a result of misguided management decisions, we failed to do so in this specific matter, and for this we offer our apologies. Of course, we will compensate all affected customers. And we will take all the steps necessary to prevent something similar from happening again in future.”
Danske said it expects to receive “justified and severe criticism” freom the Danish financial regulator for the incident.
An internal review following a “small” number of customer complasints in late 2018 found that the fees were too high for expected low returns.
Danske lowered the fees in November.
“Jesper Nielsen has made significant contributions to the bank throughout many years, most recently as interim CEO, for which we thank him. But, in the specific matter, he was at the time one of the responsible Executive Board members who did not to a sufficient degree ensure that the Flexinvest Fri product was suitable for the bank’s customers. Therefore, we find that Jesper cannot continue in his position,” said Karsten Dybvad, chairman of Danske Bank’s board of directors.
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Nielsen stepped in as interim chief executive in October last year after sacking former boss Thomas Borgen over a €200bn (£177.8bn) money laundering scandal.
Voigelzang’s appointment as CEO in June saw Nielsen return to his duties heading up Danish banking activities.