Deutsche Bank: the raid shows the disease of the group

There is this scene in the clbadic movie of the godfather, Part 3, when the head of the family Michael Corleone, who finally wants to legalize the business of the clan, says the sentence: "Just when I thought I was out, bring me back "

The phrase is a strong reminder of Deutsche Bank. US authorities have long since described the bank as a criminal organization. And like Don Corleone, the financial group has been trying for years to get rid of its scandalous past, improve its reputation and still earn a lot of money.

But whenever there is a bit of hope, the next setback follows, reminding the public of the swamp of Deutsche Bank. The most recent incident is the spectacular raid on Frankfurt headquarters on Thursday morning, during which time the prosecution, with the help of 170 police officers, has secured documents. The allegation: The group's employees should have helped the clients to found so-called offshore businesses in tax havens and launder crime money.

Deutsche Bank has stated that it has "provided the authorities with all relevant information" on the "Panama Papers", but would of course continue to cooperate closely with the prosecution.

Low profit margins, high sums of money

The real surprise is not that Deutsche Bank has a money laundering problem; this has been known for a long time (find out more here). But this concerns a case, which moves according to the prosecutor's office in the year 2018.

The case raises fundamental issues, including:

• Why is the subject of money laundering so persistent at Deutsche Bank?
• And why does not Deutsche Bank get out of the headlines?

The first question is relatively easy to answer. Deutsche Bank is one of the largest payment processors in the world. In collaboration with British HSBC and certain US competitors, it offers its customers a global service to manage cash flow in the quietest and most efficient way possible.

The business is a mbad business, which means that profit margins are low, plus a bank can process as many payments as possible through its systems. Their so-called Global Transaction Banking is the only remaining division with which Deutsche Bank still belongs to the world clbad.

This activity is booming because the global economy is booming and increasingly intertwined.

But it also provides a gateway for scammers and money launderers.

The logic is simple: if daily cash flows are processed in the hundreds of billions, it may be impossible to notice cheaters by the millions – for example, when companies mailboxes wash the dictator's money and for the accounts of Deutsche Bank or Danske Bank badociated with their long-term use, In the ranks of the bank, in the past, there was always a criminal energy that allowed fraudsters to do their job. At least until everything is open.

More difficult is the answer to the second question. It has been six years since Josef Ackermann left Deutsche Bank. Since then, four CEOs have tried to clean up the legacy of the Swiss bosses era and make the bank socially acceptable again. By the end of 2018, you will find that you have all failed.

Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain did not seem to believe in the cultural change you called to clean up the bank. Jain was one of the main sources of bank scandals.

His successor, John Cryan, was a jumbo who preferred to study Excel spreadsheets instead of giving the house a vision of the future and putting the right people in the right places.

Christian Sewing has been Chairman of the Board for over six months now. The cultivated house gives the impression of fighting on all fronts like a lion and to restore confidence in the bank. To begin the new job, he explained, bankers should regain their "hunter mentality". Internally and externally, it was not particularly good, it was a reminder of the unfortunate past in which the bank had all the means to make profits and high bonuses.

In addition, the sewing has in no way made every effort to end the maladministration. As account manager, he was hit by money laundering in the Moscow branch, where Deutsche Bank spent about $ 10 billion in fraud; the cooperation with Danske Bank, whose Estonian branch has even laundered more than $ 200 billion, was halted only in 2015 – although obvious signs have already shown that something would go wrong not in spring 2013, which explains Sewing's tenure as chief auditor.

Even later, between 2013 and 2018, apparently, the case was the occasion of the ongoing raid. As of 2015, Sewing was initially the legal director, then the head of private clients and finally the CEO of Deutsche Bank. His successor as legal director in mid-2015 was Karl von Rohr, now vice chairman of Sewing's board.

Nevertheless, a few weeks ago, the German Financial Supervisory Authority, BaFin, deemed it appropriate to send a money laundering officer to Deutsche Bank, for the first time in its history. In other words, the Authority does not agree with the Group's efforts to bring order in its anti-money laundering systems. and the financing of terrorism. And it's up to Sewing, von Rohr and Sylvie Matherat, compliance officers, that they will be responsible and probably not doing their current job for too long.

Obviously, all these tips have not done their job carefully or in a sustainable manner. But Paul Achleitner, chairman of the supervisory board and the only officer to have served on the board since Ackermann's departure in 2012, is first and foremost inducted.

Here is how Achleitner recalls an episode of the spring of 2015. At that time, he thought it appropriate to dismiss his friend Georg Thoma with brutal severity on the supervisory board, while he had already appointed the famous jurist of the Düsseldorf business itself to clean the board. Achleitner Thoma, seconded by other members of the supervisory board and the press service of the group, has publicly resigned because the lawyer took it too closely with the training. Colleagues, annoying, prevent the company from looking with optimism towards the future.

An event until then unique in the German economic history. In light of the current raid, contacts with the Thoma scout are representative of a group whose privileged staff still prefer IDPs to bright people.