BRUSSELS: The European Commission wants all member states to investigate into how many cars use illegal “defeat” devices to cheat emissions tests in light of the scandal at Volkswagen, a Commission spokeswoman said.

Volkswagen has said 11 million of its diesel cars around the world could be implicated after the US Environmental Protection Agency revealed VW had been using software to mask pollutants.

“We are inviting all member states to carry out an investigation at national level,” Commission spokeswoman Lucia Caudet said.

“We need to have a full picture of how many vehicles were fitted with defeat devices, which break EU law.”

The Commission has proposed new legislation on tightening up its vehicle testing regime to produce results more in line with real driving conditions, which it says is the responsibility of member states to enforce.

It is also looking at whether the European Union’s system of type approval, when new models are put on to the market, should be changed and has said it has called a meeting with national authorities, but it is not clear when.

The biggest bank in the Nordic region, Nordea, said it was barring its traders from buying Volkswagen shares and bonds for six months over the German manufacturer’s emissions scandal.

“We are sending a clear message that this is unacceptable,” Sasja Beslik, head of responsible investments at Stockholm-based Nordea,said.

“We believe this action, or lack of action, from the management is outrageous. It’s poor judgment in terms of business, but it’s also very costly from a financial point of view,” he said.

Volkswagen has admitted that as many as 11 million of its diesel cars worldwide are equipped with software capable of fooling official pollution tests.

Nordea, which said it holds around two billion kronor (2.1 billion euros, $2.4 billion) worth of VW shares and bonds, said however it would not sell off its stake.

“We won’t sell our holdings because they are our way to engage with the management. And we could join a class action,” Beslik said.

“We evaluate all investments from both financial, environmental and social perspectives. This is a textbook case of how to not behave credibly and honestly,” he told Swedish financial daily Dagens Industri.

While Nordea as a shareholder was scathing in its criticism of VW, it was more measured in its forecast of the effect of the scandal on the German economy.

“I have a very hard time seeing that the scandal will hit the economy as whole,” Nordea economist Holger Sandte tweeted.

Nordea, the only so-called systemic bank in the Nordic region, manages around two billion euros of assets worldwide.