Financial crime
DNB fights financial crime and contributes to a secure digital economy.
Financial crime, which includes work-related crime and money laundering, is a serious social problem and a threat to the welfare state, while also undermining a healthy and sustainable business sector.
We work systematically to prevent our products and services from being used for criminal activity. Our goal is to be the bank customers have most confidence in to deliver secure digital banking services in a modern economy with an ever-increasing degree of digitalisation.
We work to fight financial crime to reduce financial loss for society, for our customers and for DNB, while maintaining confidence in the bank's products and services. This work is crucial to our social contract and compliance.
DNB’s objectives in fighting financial crime:
Suspicious transactions
To report all suspicious transactions to Økokrim (the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime).
Trust in the digital space
To be the most trusted bank in the modern economy.
Data and artificial intelligence
Using new technology to ensure a fair society.
Anti-Money Laundering
Money laundering is a prerequisite for most forms of crime, from illegal trade in arms and drugs to human trafficking and terrorism. If we put a stop to money laundering, we will therefore contribute to creating a safer society.
For DNB, effective anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) measures have the highest priority. This is also a clear expectation from society around us.
Read more about anti-money laundering and terrorist financing here
Protection against fraud and scams
Økokrim’s threat assessments show that digitalisation and globalisation have made mass fraud easier to implement. In today’s digital world, you’re almost always available online, and fraudsters from all over the world can contact you at any time, often in your own language.
As a financial institution, we closely monitor our customers and own the infrastructure. This means that we are almost able to detect and stop transactions that customers have been tricked or enticed into carry out. Preventing such transactions and fraudsters is an important part of our corporate responsibility.
Effective cooperation between banks and authorities is the key to stopping fraudsters and fraud. DNB is therefore working closely with the financial industry, Økokrim and other public bodies to safeguard customers and society against fraud.
In 2022, DNB contributed to fighting financial crime by:
stop fraud attempts amounting to NOK 1 067 million.
This allowed DNB and our customers to avoid financial losses.
reporting 1 689 suspicions to Økokrim (the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime).
This made money laundering and terrorist financing more difficult.
stop 14 470 cyberattacks and IT security incidents.
This prevented potentially serious consequences.
DNB handled 9 291 fraud attempts in 2022
The number of fraud cases increased by 45 per cent in 2022 compared to the previous year. Fraud is still the form of crime people most likely to be victims of. Nevertheless, we still find there is little awareness about digital security and a lack of understanding of how serious the threat can be. DNB actively works to raise awareness about fraud and wants to increase people’s digital security.
How to minimise the company’s risk of fraud
Fraud attempts are increasing and fraudsters are getting more and more professional. The attacks are often targeted at individual businesses.
We therefore hope that the advice in this document can contribute to preventing crime against our customers.
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Safe and secure IT systems
In a global context, Norway is a highly digitised society. The financial industry has been central to developing the solutions for payments and identification that most of us use in everyday life. Most people are keen users of digital services and expect them to be available 24/7.
This means that the need to secure the financial infrastructure against malicious attacks is a social concern of the highest importance. DNB regards cyber risk, or threats to the digital infrastructure, as one of the biggest threats to the financial system and our society.
DNB therefore uses significant resources both to secure our own platforms and the Norwegian financial industry’s common infrastructure. We also collaborate closely with public authorities on societal security and emergency preparedness for operational solutions to combat cyber threats. Customers and communities should be confident that their funds and information are safe at DNB.
Fraud can take many forms
Investment fraud, executive fraud, dating fraud and phishing are some of the types of fraud our customers are exposed to. The biggest increase we saw in 2021 was in phishing attacks, which rose by 568 per cent. Investment fraud on fake online commerce platforms is also widespread, often with fake ads using the profiles of unaware celebrities.
New fraud methods
A great number of fraud cases relate to fishing for information, so-called phishing. There is a clear trend towards fake emails or text messages becoming better and harder to detect.
Fraudsters have become better at using information they find in open sources about the people they’re trying to trick. By using openly available information, they can “tailor” attacks which make them much harder to detect.
The criminals have also become better at automating. This means that they can attack many more people than before.
The combination of automated and tailored attacks means that we are facing a very different and significantly increased threat from these operators.
The criminals exploit vulnerable groups
We also see examples of organised criminals exploiting vulnerable groups, such as refugees and the elderly. They commit ID theft, and unsecured loans and car loans are applied for in the fraud victim’s name by using fake salary information.
In 2021, we have also investigated and reported loan fraud in connection with government-guaranteed loans due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, Financial Cyber Crime Centre (FC3) investigated and reported 73 cases to the police. The cases are extensive and several of them concern mass fraud.
Read more about fraud at DNB Nyheter (News)
