Authorities have charged the embattled Danish bank, and its acting CEO reportedly says it has sufficient capital to handle likely penalties.

Danske Bank, which last week was charged by Danish authorities with breaching anti-money laundering controls, has built a capital buffer of up to $2.7 billion to cope with any fines, a report quoted its acting chief executive as saying.

Jesper Nielsen, who took over the post a few weeks after CEO Thomas Borgen resigned amidst the scandal, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that the buffer “significantly” exceeds what Denmark’s regulator has ordered Danske to hold in connection with the laundering case. 

US authorities are probing the Copenhagen-based lender about how its Estonian branch became a channel for money to flow out of Russia, a case spanning almost a decade and covering about $230 million.

The scandal, adding to other money laundering cases in recent years, has prompted EU policymakers to call for more concerted action to defeat dirty money.

Denmark’s financial regulators have told Danske to hold about $1.5 billion in capital to prepare for potential penalties. The FSA told the lender to add DKKR10 billion ($1.52 billion) to its capital requirement; the acting CEO was quoted as saying that the bank has between DKK15 and DKK20 billion, according to how it is measured.

In its 29 November statement, Danske said that it faces preliminary charges for “serious economic and international crime and violating Danish anti-money laundering laws." There are four counts to the charge, relating to Danske Bank’s Estonia branch from 1 February 2007 to the end of January 2016. 

“We did expect to be preliminarily charged by SØIK in continuation of the findings and conclusions of the investigations we presented in September this year,” Nielsen said in a statement issued by the bank. 

“It is in our interest that the case is fully investigated, and we will, of course, cooperate with SØIK and make ourselves and the knowledge we have available in relation to the ongoing investigation. In recent years, we have taken a number of initiatives, and the situation is now quite different from what it was at the time of the suspicious activities in Estonia. We will continue to give high priority to this area,” he added.