By Louise Rasmussen
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Swedbank has received an administrative fine of 850 million Swedish crowns ($81.52 million) due to a "lack of internal control" after changing its IT systems last year, Sweden's bank regulator said in a statement on Wednesday.
Finansinspektionen (FSA) said its investigation showed that Swedbank did not follow internal procedures when changing its system, and that it did not have suitable control mechanisms in place to ensure it followed internal procedures.
"Swedbank regrets and has apologised to customers for the problems that the IT incident caused. The bank has taken forceful measures to prevent this type of incident from happening again," Swedbank said in a statement.
On April 28 and 29 last year, following changes to its systems, a large number of transactions were halted while almost one million customers had incorrect balances in their accounts, and were unable to make payments.
However, the violation was neither prolonged nor systemic, and Swedbank has since strengthened its internal controls, the regulator said.
($1 = 10.4274 Swedish crowns)