Deutsche Bank was assessed a penalty of 170,000 euros (U.S. $180,000) by Germany’s financial supervisory authority for failing to timely submit suspicious activity reports (SARs).
BaFin announced the fine Thursday, noting the reports related to suspected money laundering. The fine total was comprised of five penalties, as determined in the regulator’s March decision.
A link to BaFin’s decision could not be found on its website.
The regulator offered no further details, other than the requirement financial institutions report suspected transactions related to money laundering or terrorist financing “immediately.”
“Deutsche Bank has accepted the fine imposed by BaFin regarding a delayed filing of SARs in a single case,” the bank said in an emailed statement. “The Bank has cooperated with BaFin in the investigations and is continuously working to further improve its processes and systems regarding SARs.”
Deutsche Bank has run afoul of BaFin multiple times in recent years. In September 2022, the regulator gave the bank a deadline of mid-2023 to undertake certain measures to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. The bank said it was confident it would meet the deadline.
“We are fully aligned with BaFin on the necessary measures and have already completed a large proportion of them,” a bank spokesperson said around the time. “We have, and will continue, to invest the resources and management attention necessary to improve our control environment and to meet regulatory expectations.”
BaFin first ordered Deutsche Bank to improve its anti-money laundering controls and procedures in September 2018, which included the landmark appointment of a “special representative” to serve as a monitor. That mandate was expanded in April 2021 because of a lack of progress.
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