Foreign News: Groupe BPCE now a G-SIB, Danske Bank whistleblower 19 November 2018 5:15PM Banking Day staff Foreign news, AML/CTF, Finance regulation, Other topics Groupe BPCE, the second largest banking group in France, joins the ranks of Global Systemically Important Banks, or G-SIBs, under a list released by the Financial Stability Board on Friday. The 2018 list has 29 G-SIBs, down one. Nordea and Royal Bank of Scotland have been removed from the list. The attorney for Danske Bank money-laundering whistleblower Howard Wilkinson has released a statement prior to Wilkinson's appearance before the Danish Parliament saying the former employee of Danske Bank's Estonian office was "fully committed to cooperating with the Danish Parliament, despite the threat of civil and criminal prosecution under bank secrecy laws and other rules that restrict whistleblower rights in Europe." Wilkinson claims he warned Danske Bank managers in 2013-14 of a "massive money-laundering scandal involving billions of dollars flowing out of Russia", the statement says. It adds that Wilkinson will testify despite the fact that "Denmark has some of the weakest whistleblower protections in Europe … We have been informed that legal protections for whistleblowers who appear before Parliament do not exist."