Financial Inspectorate Hands Down EUR4.35m Fine to Zagrebacka Banka

Money Laundering (Pixabay)

Inspectors of the Croatian National Bank handed down Zagrebacka Banka a fine of HRK33m (around EUR4.35m) after they found that the bank did not fulfill all the obligations stemming from the Law on preventing money laundering and terrorist financing between Jan. 1, 2017 and Nov. 8, 2019, the central bank said in a statement. 

The central bank’s oversight detected a total of 11 violations of the aforementioned law, specifically in assessing the risk of an individual business relationship, identification and tracking of suspicious, complex and unusual transactions, reporting suspicious transactions to the Anti-Money Laundering Office, implementing measures of increased due diligence of parties, and in the system of internal control for the reduction and effective management of the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing. 

Suspicions that Zagrebacka Banka had not followed legal provisions for preventing money laundering appeared early this year, after former bank CEO Miljenko Zivaljic resigned. 

The media reported that the biggest Croatian bank was suspected of having enabled a large number of its clients to launder money. 

A month after Zivaljic, two other former members of Zagrebacka Banka’s management resigned on Feb. 24 - Eugen Paić Karega and Nikolaus Maximilian Linarić. Zagrebačka Banka is Croatia’s biggest bank, with assets totaling HRK124.9bn and a market share of 27.8%.