US targets Deutsche Bank for dealing with blacklisted countries
Wednesday, 9 July 2014 00:25
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Reuters: U.S. authorities have begun settlement talks with Germany’s Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank over their dealings with countries blacklisted by the United States, extending a crackdown on European banks at a delicate point in U.S.-German relations.
The talks with state and federal authorities have just begun, a source with direct knowledge of the regulatory investigations told Reuters, and the timing of a deal is unclear.
Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank declined to comment.
New York Times said a deal could be struck as soon as this summer and could pave the way for an agreement with Deutsche Bank.
Deutsche Bank, which has already paid over 5 billion euros in fines and settlements in the past two years, said in June it had done nothing wrong in its Iran dealings.
Germany’s largest lender stopped doing new business with Iran in 2007 but remains engaged in several long-term loans or financial arrangements, some of which conclude in 2019, Deutsche said in the prospectus for a rights issue. Commerzbank, Germany’s second-largest lender, is 17% owned by the German government, and the settlement talks could further strain ties between Berlin and Washington, already at a low ebb due to allegations that a German man had worked as a double agent for U.S. intelligence.
