New York's financial services watchdog said on Tuesday that Finnish-headquartered Nordea Bank will pay the Empire State a $35 million penalty for insufficient anti-money laundering controls, and for importing risks to the state's financial system through its relationships with U.S. banks.

Nordea, which has had a branch in New York City for decades, said it has since fortified those efforts, while its former processes, policies and controls involved a shuttered bank in Denmark and Nordea's former operations in the Baltics.