Deutsche Bank Fined €23.05m By Germany’s BaFin

The fine is said to be for breaches of organisational requirements related to derivative sales, investment advice recording, and account switching delays at its Postbank branch.

The largest portion of the fine—€14.8 million—was issued for Deutsche Bank’s failure to investigate and address compliance shortcomings in its sale of currency derivatives in Spain. 

The bank took too long to rectify the issues, leading to separate sanctioning proceedings by Spain’s National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

Postbank, a branch of Deutsche Bank, was fined €4.6 million for failing to record telephone conversations related to investment advice. 

BaFin said that although exceptions were granted during the COVID-19 pandemic, the bank did not reinstate proper recording measures after they expired.

Furthermore, the regulator found Postbank had repeatedly delayed or failed to process customer requests for account switching services, violating the German Payment Accounts Act (ZKG). This resulted in a €3.65 million fine.

BaFin commented that investment service providers must have proper compliance frameworks to prevent delays in identifying and resolving regulatory breaches. 

Financial institutions are also instructed to maintain records of communications related to investment services and to assist customers with switching accounts.

The fine is final and binding, according to BaFin.