Deutsche Bank executives criticised by finance regulator

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/06/deutsche-bank-executives-criticised-regulator

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Germany's finance ministry piled pressure on Deutsche Bank to reform its corporate culture on Monday after the industry watchdog said the bank had not done enough to clean up its act despite several scandals.

A strongly worded report by Bafin, the financial regulator, was leaked at the weekend suggesting the bank's co-chief executives, Anshu Jain and Jürgen Fitschen, have made little impression with their efforts to restore the bank's reputation.

Bafin and other regulators are investigating Deutsche and more than a dozen other institutions over allegations they manipulated benchmark interest rates such as Libor and Euribor.

Separately, Deutsche faces several lawsuits and investigations including a decade-old case led by heirs of the Kirch media empire and charges by the EU that it was among 13 investment banks that blocked access to the lucrative credit derivatives market.Bafin is approaching the end of its investigation into the interest rate accusations and has concluded, according to the German weekly Der Spiegel, that Deutsche has not done enough to investigate and clear up the incident.

A finance ministry spokesman said: "Bafin should and will vigorously pursue all accusations when it comes to the issue of the manipulation of interest rates.We attach great importance to ensuring that this gets truly cleared up fully and completely."

Bafin declined to comment. Deutsche Bank said it was closely co-operating with Bafin in various investigations. "No current or former member of the management board had any inappropriate involvement," a spokeswoman said.

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