This is Deutsche Bank’s transparency track record in recent years:
* The US Federal Reserve Bank of New York questioned the bank’s reporting procedures and “myriad oversights” in late 2013.
* Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) placed Deutsche Bank’s London office under “enhanced supervision” last August, and fined it £4.7m for “reporting failures”.
* Yesterday, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority said it had begun an inquiry into whether Deutsche Bank violated German securities regulations in disclosing its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2014 last Thursday.
I’m far from being the only observer with huge doubts about exactly what might explode (covering us all in sh*t) when Deutsche finally hits force majeur, and has no choice but to tell us the truth. Although regulators colluding with banks to hide their guilt is common, three separate regulatory authorities ganging up against one bank is just not credible. But that’s never held Deutsche back before, and it doesn’t now – here was their comment today re the latest condemnation:
“We have been working diligently to further strengthen our systems and controls and are committed to being best in class. We have invested €3.6bn since 2012 as part of this effort.”
Dominika Kula, a spokeswoman for the German regulatior, said ““It’s a very standard procedure. It’s nothing unusual”. I’m hugely reassured.
On the other hand, maybe I’m not. In May 2013, a Hagmann & Hagmann report on the bank concluded:
‘Deutsche Bank’s derivative debt is greater than the global economy. That is one bank. $72 trillion in derivative exposure. The entire global economy, all the countries in the world is only $66 trillion GDP’.
And there’s the Troika, worrying about a Greek debt that is just 0.5% of Deutsche Bank’s exposure.
Funny ol’ world, innit?
The Slog 