Dutch state-owned bank ABN Amro fired six employees at its Dubai private banking desk after an internal probe showed they were involved in serious irregularities, the Financieele Dagblad says on Wednesday.

The bankers had failed to comply with internal codes of conduct by enabling clients to use their personal accounts for illicit business transactions. The FD said this enabled the clients to use private banking accounts to carry out transactions which should have fallen under a much stricter compliance regime.

‘We offer private banking, and feel that using our services this way is improper,’ a spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal. ‘We maintain a high standard world-wide for client acceptance.’

ABN Amro has a workforce of around 100 in Dubai. The office trades in commodities such as oil and in diamonds as well as offering private banking services to wealthy clients.

The FD says the bank kept the irregularities and the redundancies quiet and described the sudden departure of the responsible chief executive officer as ‘retirement’.