Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay nearly $630m ($425m) to UK and US regulators to settle probes into whether it helped covertly move as much as $10 billion out of Russia through a process known as "mirror trading."

New York and British authorities issued the fine on Monday over claims the money was moved out of Russia using so-called mirror trades among the bank’s Moscow, London and New York offices, said New York State’s Department of Financial Services (DFS).

The DFS legal document which details the case says: "By converting rubles into dollars through security trades that had no discernible economic purpose, the scheme was a means for bad actors within a financial institution to achieve improper ends while evading compliance with applicable laws."

The North American Wertheim Jewish Education Trust in the United States is demanding back payment from Deutsche Bank of nearly $3 billion, claiming the bank wrongly withheld the money from the heirs of a wealthy German family, as Bloomberg reported.

The Jewish charitable trust filed its complaint at a Florida federal court on Wednesday, claiming the bank refused to return funds originally deposited by the wealthy Wertheim family before the rise of the Nazis.

Deutsche Bank has warned its employees of more job cuts to come. In addition to announcing radically reduced 2016 bonus payments for top managers, the bank told some staff on Wednesday that layoffs will continue, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions as Bloomberg reported.

In a note to staff on Wednesday, John Cryan, chief executive, said Deutsche’s management board had decided to waive their bonuses for 2016, the second consecutive year in which top executives at Germany’s biggest bank have forgone such awards after it finalised its $7.2 billion legal settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice related to the sale of mortgage bonds into the peak of the global financial crisis.

Deutsche Bank has signed a $7.2 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over its sale of toxic mortgage securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, the government agency said on Tuesday.
The settlement requires Deutsche Bank to pay a $3.1 billion civil penalty under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA). Under the settlement, Deutsche Bank will also provide $4.1 billion in relief to underwater homeowners, distressed borrowers and affected communities.

Germany’s banking major Deutsche Bank agreed Wedsneday with the U.S. Justice Department to pay $95 million to settle a federal tax liability case. The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed in 2014 that had sought to recoup more than $190M in taxes, penalties and interest.

The major allegation was that in 2000, the bank used a shell company BMY with little assets and no operating business, to evade taxable income and to gain from sale of stock. The shell company ended up in the tax liability of around $52 million. Through the settlement, the bank has admitted and accepted responsibility of the allegations.

Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse have agreed to pay billion in fines relating to the collapse of the US housing market that contributed to the financial crisis, striking deals before the Trump administration takes power.
The government has accused the banks of misleading investors about the quality of their loans. The inquiries related to deals done between 2005 and 2007.

Deutsche Bank agreed to a $7.2 billion settlement with the DoJ over its sale and pooling of toxic mortgage securities.

The Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) said on Wednesday it had fined several European and U.S. banks over four instances of interest rate cartels, the largest of which was a 33.9 million Swiss franc ($32.9 million) penalty for JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The commission said J.P. Morgan and RBS ran a “bilateral cartel” to influence the Swiss franc Libor benchmark rate, which is widely used by banks to determine on what terms they will lend to each other and to price derivatives, between 2008 and 2009.
JPMorgan will pay CHF33.9 million, but RBS will not have to pay a fine as it went to Weko with the information.

Deutsche Bank could enter 2017 with one less item to tick off its to-do list, as it has emerged that a potential mega fine from the US Department of Justice (DoJ) could be settled on Wednesday, the Reuters reported.

A source told the news outlet there is a good chance Deutsche Bank will reach an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice before Christmas, possibly as early as Wednesday. The source also said the bank is set to pay a penalty well below the $14 billion the DOJ initially demanded. Deutsche has been negotiating the terms of the fine with the DoJ since September, when the US authority targeted it with a $14-billion penalty for its role in the sub-prime mortgage crisis.