Embattled Deutsche Bank to overhaul anti-financial crime controls

Starting next month, the bank’s chief administrative office (CAO) will expand into six units: the AFC team, compliance and the business selection and conflicts office, legal, regulatory affairs, the chief remediation office, and the chief operating office.

“The goal of this new setup is to become more effective in all areas, but especially in the fight against financial crime,” Chief Administrative Officer Stefan Simon wrote in a memo sent to employees Tuesday and seen by Compliance Week.

As part of that broader plan, controls testing and assurance will become an independent function, reporting directly to Simon. Central functions in the areas of AFC and compliance will be brought to Frankfurt, Simon said, and both will be aligned “according to common organizational principles, which will simplify their structure.”

A central project management office, led by the chief remediation office, also will report directly to Simon. “The aim is always to have a global overview of the remediation requirements of our regulators worldwide and to centrally manage these requirements,” he said.

New appointments

Deutsche Bank, which began making changes to its management in March, will reappoint key positions in its chief administrative office, “especially in the AFC function, drawing on both internal and external expertise,” Simon wrote. These new appointments include:

• Joe Salama, who is currently head of legal for the Americas, will become the global head of AFC and group anti-money laundering (AML) officer, effective July 1.
• Jan-Gerrit Iken will take charge at the AFC executive committee level of the monitoring and screening function, effective Sept. 1. He will join from Commerzbank, where he most recently was global head of financial crime, AML and sanctions since 2015.
• Eric Kringel, who joined Deutsche Bank as U.S. head of transaction monitoring in May, will report to Iken after temporarily carrying out his position until September.
• Robert Mueller will become regional head of AFC Germany and head of business line AFC private bank and will also be tasked with defining the bank’s AML framework. Mueller is currently associate general counsel and head of litigation and regulatory enforcement in Germany and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa). He will report to Salama.
• Mary Kirwan will join the bank in July and report to Salama as regional head of AFC UKI (United Kingdom and Ireland) and head of business line AFC Investment Bank and capital release unit. Her former positions include U.K. head of financial crime compliance and money laundering reporting officer at Credit Suisse.
• Pamela Root, who was responsible for the bank’s compliance organization worldwide until the end of March, will temporarily assume responsibility for internal quality assurance. “As an independent, interdisciplinary unit, the team’s job will be to assess the effectiveness of the controls and processes in CAO,” said Simon, whom Root will report to.

Announcement of the restructuring comes after Germany’s market regulator signaled in late April that Deutsche Bank still has more to do concerning previously ordered improvements to its AML compliance controls. The bank has also reportedly faced recent criticism from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

“I am aware that we still have plenty of work to do as we are still not meeting all the demands of the regulators,” Simon wrote. “With the new CAO structure and our leadership team, I am confident that we will achieve our objectives together.”