Washington - Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $41 million to settle Federal
Reserve allegations that its US operations failed to maintain adequate
protections against money laundering, the latest in a string of fines that have
cost the German lender billions of dollars.
The Frankfurt-based bank’s US operations fell short in
complying with the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires lenders to help
federal agencies prevent illegal transactions, the Fed said in a brief Tuesday
statement. The regulator imposed a cease-and-desist order on Deutsche Bank that
requires it to address “unsafe and unsound practices.” The bank also agreed to
improve its controls and boost oversight of senior management.
“We are committed to implementing every remediation measure
referenced in the Fed’s order and to meeting their expectations,” Deutsche Bank
said in an emailed statement.
The fine is within the lender’s expectations, a person
briefed on the matter said, suggesting it’s covered by legal provisions that
stood at 3.2 billion Euros ($3.6 billion) at the end of March. Chief Executive
Officer John Cryan has spent almost two years navigating probes, culminating in
a $7.2 billion mortgage-bond settlement with the US government in January.
Cryan is now focusing on restoring revenue growth after raising
$8.5 billion from investors in April to replenish capital eroded by fines. Deutsche Bank fell 1.1 percent to 15.96 Euros at 10:05 a.m.
in Frankfurt trading, cutting gains in the past six months to 20 percent.
Multiple Investigations
The bank’s insufficient monitoring involved billions of
dollars in “potentially suspicious transactions” processed between 2011 and
2015, the Fed said. The transactions involved affiliates in Europe that failed
to provide “accurate and complete information,” the regulator said.
While the Fed didn’t disclose any specific transactions that
were improper, Deutsche Bank has faced multiple investigations by various
regulators into whether it allowed customers to engage in illicit trades.
Deutsche Bank has recently reached settlements with the UK and New York State’s
Department of Financial Services over trades that allegedly helped wealthy
Russians move some $10 billion out of the country.
The settlements involved what are known as mirror trades, in
which bankers purchased Russian stocks in rubbles while selling the same
amount of shares in London.
The trades effectively converted rubbles to dollars, and the
cash flowed from the UK through Cyprus, Estonia and the US, investigators say.
The deficiencies cited by the Fed include controls over transactions like
mirror trades, said one person with knowledge of the matter.
In its settlement with the Fed, Deutsche Bank agreed to
enlist an outside monitor to review transactions with international banks in
the second half of 2016 a time frame that could expand depending on the
monitor’s findings. The bank also agreed for the outside monitor to review its
compliance with anti-money laundering laws.
The bank recently unveiled a drive to add 400 new people to
its anti-money laundering unit this year, overseen by Chief Regulatory Officer
Sylvie Matherat, which would boost the staff level by about 50 percent. A
settlement on the Russian mirror trades with the US Department of Justice is
still outstanding.