Deutsche Bank to pay US$9.5m to settle US civil charges

WASHINGTON: Deutsche Bank will pay a US$9.5 million (RM40 million) penalty to settle civil charges that it failed to properly safeguard material non-public information generated by its research analysts and publishing an improper research report, us regulators said yesterday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said the bank’s securities unit encouraged its equity research analysts to communicate with customers and its own traders, and failed to implement policies to prevent the analysts from disclosing non-public reports on trading recommendations and changes in estimates.

The bank settled the case without admitting or denying the charges. In a statement, Deutsche spokeswoman Amanda Williams said the bank “takes its research analyst communications and conduct very seriously.”

She added that the bank has a robust policy in place and hastaken steps to correct issues identified by the SEC. – Reuters