A fine muddle

31 January 2017 By George Hay Follow @gfhay

The German bank must pay less than 10 pct what it theoretically could have for making suspect Russian trades. In 2014, the regulator handed RBS a hit five times the base case. Regulatory fines lose their effect if they’re too random or, as here, too lenient.

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Deutsche Bank has been slapped with fines totalling $630 million by UK and U.S. regulators for failing to stop clients laundering money out of Russia through about $10 billion of suspicious trades.

Most of the transactions, which were routed through the bank's Moscow, London and New York offices from 2011 to 2015, were called mirror trades.

"The offsetting trades here lacked economic purpose and could have been used to facilitate money laundering or enable other illicit conduct," the New York Department of Financial Services said on Jan. 30, fining Deutsche Bank $425 million and requiring it to install an independent monitor.

Britain's Financial Conduct Authority separately fined Deutsche Bank 163 million pounds ($204 million) for failing to maintain adequate anti-money laundering controls between 2012 and 2015, allowing customers to transfer billions from Russia to offshore bank accounts "in a manner that is highly suggestive of financial crime".

Deutsche Bank said the settlement amounts were "materially reflected in existing litigation reserves". It added, however, it was still cooperating with other regulators and authorities who had their own ongoing investigations.

By 1542 GMT, shares in Deutsche Bank were trading at 18.52 euros, down 0.5 percent from the previous day's close.

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