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Deutsche Bank branch in London
Photo: TOLGA AKMEN / AFP
After international media reports of significant failures in the fight against money laundering, Deutsche Bank's share price has collapsed.
By noon on Monday, he slumped on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange by more than eight percent.
The German share index (Dax) lost more than three percent to the closing price on Friday.
According to secret documents from the US Treasury Department, which WDR, NDR and "Süddeutsche Zeitung" reported in Germany, several international financial institutions accepted alleged Mafiosi, fraudsters and sanctioned oligarchs as customers and made transfers worth billions of euros for them.
The events mentioned in the so-called "FinCEN files" were sometimes reported only very hesitantly and in some cases with years of delay.
The data leak also makes Deutsche Bank difficult to explain.
According to US investigators, Russian criminals and a money launderer working for terrorist groups are said to have laundered money through the Moscow branch of Deutsche Bank.
Commerzbank rejects allegations
But not only Deutsche Bank is struggling with the consequences of global reporting, Commerzbank is also under pressure.
The money house has now rejected the allegations of misconduct in the fight against money laundering.
The topics mentioned in the "FinCEN-Files" are known and are based on suspicious activity reports that Commerzbank sent to the supervisory authorities mainly between 2010 and 2016, the institute said.
The media had reported suspicious payments by Commerzbank, which total around two billion euros.
The share price collapsed by more than 6 percent compared to the closing price on Friday.
Since 2015, the bank has increased its global compliance management staff and invested more than 800 million euros, it said.
"Today we also use modern filter and control systems to continuously ensure that suspicious transactions are reported to the responsible authorities and that the business complies with the currently applicable regulatory requirements".
Opposition sees "state failure on a grand scale"
In the political arena, calls for more powers for supervisory authorities and tougher penalties have arisen following the revelations.
SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjans called for "finally transparent rules and tangible sanctions for violations".
He criticized the newspapers of the Funke media group that the CDU and CSU were blocking attempts by the SPD to make "moral categories the guideline for economic activity".
The economic and financial policy spokesman for the Green Group in the European Parliament, Sven Giegold, called it "scandalous that major international banks allow money laundering on a large scale even after the global financial crisis."
According to Giegold, the Greens will initiate a hearing on the data leak in the new tax committee of the European Parliament, they see state failure on a grand scale.
"It should be particularly interesting when exactly which of the banks involved last did questionable business," said Giegold.
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rai / Reuters / afp / dpa
