Frankfurt - Deutsche Bank was fined by German regulators for being too
slow to give the reasons for why it delayed confirmation that ex-CEOs Anshu
Jain and Juergen Fitschen were stepping down.
Bafin, the German financial watchdog, deemed the delay to be
a violation of securities rules and fined it 550,000 Euros ($598,000) for that
and three other probes, according to an emailed statement Friday from the
regulator. Magazine WiWo earlier reported the size of the fines, without giving
details.
The bank’s supervisory board was meeting on a Sunday in June
2015 when news organizations began reporting the news that the executives were
planning to leave, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked
not to be identified because the matter is private.
The supervisory board hadn’t voted on Jain’s departure yet
and decided it should wait before confirming the reports, the people said.
Deutsche Bank, led by Chief Executive Officer John Cryan, has
resolved legal issues including a settlement with the US Justice Department in
December that resulted in a penalty of $3.1 billion.
While the total amount of litigation expenses in 2017
is “to some extent uncertain,” they are expected to remain at last year’s level
of 2.4 billion Euros ($2.61 billion), Deputy CEO Marcus Schenck said on an
analyst call in late April.
Read also: Deutsche Bank, Capitec fined for non-compliance
“Bafin has completed the probe into a potential violation by
Deutsche Bank AG of ad-hoc publication requirements in connection with the CEO
change,” it said. “In relation to the publication of the ad-hoc release about
the CEO change in June 2015, the notification about the reasons of self-release
to Bafin was too late.”
Under certain circumstances, banks can decide not to
immediately publish ad-hoc notifications but they must subsequently explain that
decision to Bafin, a spokeswoman for the regulator said.