Misconduct fine for Deutsche Bank

April 11, 2006
BBC News

The FSA seeks to maintain confidence in financial markets. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined Deutsche Bank £6.3m (9.2m euros; $11.1m) for misconduct in its handling of share trades in two firms. The FSA found the bank breached acceptable standards of market conduct in two share transactions handled by a London-based unit in 2004. The fine is the third largest imposed on a firm for market misconduct by the regulator since 2001. Deutsche Bank said it had tightened up its procedures in response.

...The FSA found the bank had made errors in the purchase of shares in Swedish firm Scania in 2004, fining it £5.8m. It was also fined £500,000 for failing to ensure proper procedures were followed in the sale of shares in Swiss firm Cytos.

Deutsche's buying of Scania stock on the open market, at a time when it was handling the sale of a block of Scania shares bought from Volvo, was not sufficiently transparent. This, the FSA said, resulted in potential investors not having a "full understanding" about the market for Scania shares. The FSA also found that relevant information was not shared with senior management or internal compliance units while some details released to investors were "incomplete or inaccurate".

David Maslen, who headed the Deutsche department handling the sale process, has separately been fined £350,000 for his behaviour. The FSA said that, in his position, Mr Maslen should have been aware of the rules governing market conduct but found no evidence of deliberate wrongdoing on his part...

Labels: Financial Services Authority