DNB board has asked Bjerke explain the revelations – Romsdals Budstikke

In a statement released Sunday evening printer Bjerke that he will explain the matter to the board as soon as it has been reviewed internally:

– DNB’s lawyers have launched a thorough investigation of all aspects of the case. Board are informed when these investigations are finished, type Bjerke.

The company says to Aftenposten that it is the board who requested the report. The newspaper revealed Sunday that DNB subsidiary DNB Luxembourg in the period 2006-2010 assisted around 40 clients to create a company in the Seychelles.

– We should not have done. With today’s internal regulations would not happened, says the CEO.

– Could misused

Based on the information available, DNB has not broken any laws or regulations in this matter, claiming the bank.

– It is customer’s responsibility to report its own funds to the IRS. Nevertheless, we believe that we should not have contributed to establishing these companies. Not because customers have done something wrong, but because the structures could be misused to evade taxes, says Bjerke.

According to Aftenposten’s information, the companies DNB assisted bank account with DNB Luxembourg. Meanwhile leased bank into straw men from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca as directors. Thus, the real owners hidden. Yet these were organized in a way that made DNB customers had dominion over money in the companies.

The information about DNB’s clients in tax havens appears to internal documents from the law firm Mossack Fonseca as the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung has gained access to. The documents have been shared with the Foundation The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and over 100 other media organizations. Saks complex has been named “Panama papers.”

– A shame

The state is the largest shareholder in DNB, and economics minister Monica Mæland (H) was informed about the case last week, said communications manager Trond Viken Industry and fisheries Ministry told Dagbladet.

Several financial politicians react sharply on the revelations.

– It’s a shame to see that DNB, of all, has spent so much effort on getting clients to actively use tax havens. The purpose of such establishments is secrecy and tax evasion from countries where the business actually operates, says the head of the Finance Committee in Parliament Hans Olav Syversen said.

– In the same period that the state lined up with the “Gold Card” help banks DNB through the financial crisis, the bank up customer relationships in tax havens so that money could skipper out of the country. It is totally unacceptable, says Valentine, requiring action immediately.

Labour’s Finance spokesperson Marianne Marthinsen, told NTB that she is very disappointed DNB.

– The company has completely knowingly facilitated tax evasion. I also think it is striking and little confidence that they choose to lie flat when revelations is a fact and known in public, says Marthinsen.