Deutsche Bank and Signature Bank sever future ties with Trump, citing riots on Capitol Hill



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Following the deadly riots on Capitol Hill last week, Deutsche Bank and Signature Bank have said they are severing future ties with President Donald Trump.

This could leave the president personally on the hook of millions of dollars when several large loans that he has personally guaranteed fall due in the next two years.

According to a person familiar with the matter, Deutsche Bank, where the president has two personally guaranteed mortgages totaling $ 340 million, is refraining from pursuing business with Trump as the loans mature in 2023 and 2024.

A company spokesperson declined to comment, but the company’s head of US operations, Christiana Riley, wrote on LinkedIn last week that the riots were “a dark day for America and our democracy.”

“Violence has no place in our society and the scenes we have witnessed are a disgrace to the whole nation,” she said. “We are proud of our Constitution and support those who seek to uphold it to ensure that the will of the people is respected and that a peaceful transition of power takes place.”

The German bank has weathered a wave of negative publicity after a series of investigations related to Trump’s finances and was allegedly looking for a way to close its relationship with the president.

In December, two of Trump’s personal bankers at Deutsche Bank, Rosemary Vrablic and Dominic Scalzi, tasked with managing the hundreds of millions of people entrusted to him over the years, resigned. The reasons for the resignations were not clear.

Signature Bank said it was closing two personal accounts in which the president held around $ 5 million.

“Signature Bank has begun the process of closing President Trump’s personal accounts,” company spokeswoman Susan Turkell said in a statement. “Signature Bank pledges not to do business in the future with members of Congress who voted to ignore the Electoral College.”

The bank also posted a statement on its website calling for Trump’s resignation.

“We have never commented on any political issue before and hope to never do so again,” the statement said. “To witness a rioter sitting as President of the US Senate and to be told our elected officials to take cover under their seats is appalling and an insult to the Republic.”

Previously, the bank was a benchmark for Trump, his extended family, and his network of colleagues. He helped fund a golf course in Florida, on loan to former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen to invest in a building in Manhattan, on loan to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared, and Jared’s father, Charles. Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka, at one point sat on his board of directors while he loaned to her father. In 2013, she quit, citing her “very demanding schedule,” American Banker reported.

News of the banks’ moves was first reported by The New York Times.

The Trump organization did not immediately respond to an NBC News request for comment.

As is generally the case with developers, Trump has taken out several large loans at interest rates only on his properties that he refinances periodically. But the list of lenders willing to do business with Trump and defer the loan is shrinking.

Ladder Capital, a small real estate investment trust specializing in riskier debt that many other banks avoid, has issued Trump millions of dollars in loans for four of his New York properties.

Financial records filed with the New York Department of Finance show four loans to Trump by Ladder Capital for an estimated amount of $ 282 million: $ 160 million for 40 Wall Street, $ 100 million for Trump Tower, $ 15 million dollars for Trump Plaza and $ 7 million for Trump International Hotel & La tour.

The loans were first discovered and reported by Wendy Siegelman, a freelance journalist who wrote for The Guardian and Buzzfeed.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.



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