European banks have been fined more than $16 billion from 2012 to 2018 for money laundering and trade sanction breaches.

Judged by ongoing scandals, that total thus far will be easily outstripped as further money laundering abuses emerge.

Europe’s largest ever money laundering scandal has so far resulted in the dismissal of prominent banking heads in Scandinavia.

The wrong-doing began in the Baltics and has ensnared several Nordic lenders, notably Denmark’s Danske and Sweden’s Swedbank, which had large Baltic operations. And to lend a sort of James Bond element to the scandal, shady Russian dealings are ...