Deutsche Bank Warned by Watchdog to Fix Controls or Face Fines

Steven Arons, Bloomberg News

The Deutsche Bank AG logo sits on the bank's campus office building in Frankfurt, Germany, on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019. On the eve of fourth-quarter results that are likely to reflect its troubles, Deutsche Bank AG’s ability to avoid a government-brokered merger with Commerzbank could rest on its performance in the first quarter of 2019, according to people briefed on the thinking of its top executives. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG was told by German financial watchdog BaFin that it must fix its controls within given deadlines if it wants to avoid a financial punishment.

“BaFin ordered Deutsche Bank on Sept. 28, 2022, to take specific actions to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing,” the watchdog said in a statement late Friday. “It threatened to impose fines in case of noncompliance.”

Under Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing, Deutsche Bank has long struggled to sufficiently improve its compliance systems and anti-financial crime bulwarks to satisfy regulators. BaFin and other watchdogs, including the US Federal Reserve, have repeatedly criticized the lender over what they say are deficiencies.

“We are fully aligned with BaFin on the necessary measures and have already completed a large proportion of them,” a Deutsche Bank spokesman said in an email. “We have, and will continue, to invest the resources and management attention necessary to improve our control environment and to meet regulatory expectations.”

BaFin’s announcement contains “no new findings,” the bank spokesman said.

Deutsche Bank has been spending billions of euros in a campaign spanning several years to fill the persistent holes in its controls. A decision last year to once again step up investment on the issue was a key reason why Sewing has missed several cost targets, Bloomberg has reported.

Sewing has managed to resolve several of Deutsche Bank’s older legal matters, and the amounts paid by the lender to settle them have tended to be lower than in the past. In addition, the bank has a much higher capital cushion than just a few years ago, making it possible to digest even potentially large fines.