Santander Bank has lost its request to hush up its €1 million fine.
The eurozone’s biggest bank was handed the fine last June for breaching a “law for the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism”.
Although the fine was small peanuts in today’s world, Santander was anxious to keep it hidden from the public and sought to delay it being published in Spain’s official journal. Such sanctions are usually published in the bulletin.
But the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that, on the grounds of banking transparency, it was in the public interest. No details of the offence were given, but the court said the fine was linked to a “very serious offence”.
Santander had argued that news of the fine would damage irreparably its image and that there was no need to publish it immediately, particularly as it is appealing against the fine and the process should be concluded before the fine was revealed publicly.
Santander gave no immediate comment.
