Legal woes continue to mount at Deutsche Bank AG DB. The German banking giant now faces investigation by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) related to the bank’s trades worth billions of dollars made on behalf of its Russian clients. The news was first reported by Bloomberg, citing people familiar with matter.
The DOJ’s criminal probe relates to ‘mirror trades’, wherein Russian clients purchased stocks in rubles through Deutsche Bank, and simultaneous trades through London in which the bank purchased the same stocks at similar amounts in U.S. dollars. Such trades are likely to have facilitated Russian clients in moving funds out of the country without notifying authorities.
Deutsche Bank’s mirror trades have also drawn the attention of New York’s banking regulator. The Department of Financial Services has asked the bank for necessary details as it examines whether those trades allowed Russian clients avoid U.S. sanctions laws.
It is believed that Deutsche Bank was carrying out an internal investigation for possible money laundering by Russian clients involving around $6 billion in trades. Notably, on Jul 30, the bank confirmed that it was probing a “significant volume” of doubtful Russian and UK trades and has taken disciplinary action against a number of people.
The latest probe undoubtedly brings Deutsche Bank under the spotlight as it is already involved in numerous litigations, arbitration and regulatory proceedings in and outside Germany. Though the company has resolved a number of legal matters and made progress on several others, a number of cases are yet to be resolved. Hence, the company's financials are expected to be exposed to higher legal expenses in the near term.
Notably, while the company reported impressive results in second-quarter 2015, first-quarter results were impacted by the $2.5 billion settlement with global authorities over its alleged role in manipulation of the interbank offered rates benchmarks.
Deutsche Bank currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the foreign banks space include Banco Santander (Brasil) S.A. BSBR, Bancolombia S.A. CIB and Banco Macro S.A. BMA. All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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