By Ugur Cil
ANKARA (AA) - Financial regulators in the U.S. and U.K. fined Deutsche Bank almost $630 million for failing to prevent money laundering on Tuesday.
The legal process for Deutsche Bank, which has been underway for several years, was concluded in negotiations with bank executives.
"Deutsche Bank has reached settlements with the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS)," the bank said in a statement on Tuesday.
"The settlements conclude the FCA and the DFS’s investigations into the bank’s anti-money laundering (AML) control function in its investment banking division, including in relation to certain securities trades that occurred between 2011 and 2015 involving its Moscow, London and New York offices," it added.
Under the terms of the settlement with the FCA, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $204.46 million in civil monetary penalties.
The bank also agreed to pay $425 million to the DFS.
"While we are pleased to have resolved these matters, the FCA and the DFS were critical of our client onboarding and know-your-client (KYC) procedures, AML monitoring and organizational clarity among the businesses and control functions involved in these securities trades," Karl von Rohr, Chief Administrative Officer of Deutsche Bank, said in a statement.
"We deeply regret the bank’s role in the issues cited," he added.
Rohr also said Deutsche Bank had taken a number of important actions, including a comprehensive review of client onboarding and KYC procedures, launched in 2015.
The investigation by American and British financial units had revealed that Deutsche Bank's customers in Russia bought shares in rubles in Moscow, which were usually bought in dollars by companies linked to the same customers in London and New York on the same day via Deutsche Bank.