The Danish daily Berlingske alleged (according to a translation of the story by Reuters) that the lender laundered as much as $8.3 billion through its Estonian branch. The Danish business minister was quoted as saying that it could open a new probe into the bank. The story sent down shares in Danske. Yesterday, Danske Bank shares were down 1.8 per cent at around 12:30 GMT; they had fallen about 3 per cent the previous day when the stories first broke.

The Danish newspaper said it had bank statements for 20 companies that held accounts with the Estonian branch over various periods from 2007 to 2015.

“It is too soon to make any conclusions about the extent of potential money laundering in Estonia,” Danske Bank’s head of group compliance, Anders Meinert Jorgensen, was reported to have said. “Therefore, we have not published our own figures or heeded speculation on the extent of this case. But we have indicated on several occasions that the extent appears to be somewhat bigger than what has previously been reported,” he said.

The normally placid world of Scandinavian banking has been rocked by the scandal of illicit financial flows through the Baltic. Estonia’s financial watchdog in February said it would open an investigation into the lender after media reports claimed it had been aware of money laundering allegations at its Estonian business as far back as 2013. The Danish FSA, the national regulator, has told Danske Bank it must bolster its capital by DKK5 billion ($803 million); the watchdog also imposed eight orders and eight reprimands on the lender.