The Bundesbank and the German financial watchdog Bafin have opened a probe of Deutsche Bank’s accounts over allegations that it hadn’t correctly valued a derivatives portfolio, perhaps hiding up to billions of losses in the process.
Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the investigation today but says the allegations, seemingly coming from New York, were unfounded and more than two years old.
A Bundesbank spokesman said: “Generally, you can assume that we pursue any allegations that are made to assess their validity.”
In December the Financial Times reported that three former Deutsche Bank employees had filed complaints with US securities regulators claiming the bank had failed to recognise up to $12 billion (£8 billion) of unrealised losses during the financial crisis.
The allegation is that Deutsche Bank had been incorrectly valuing credit derivatives from 2007 through to 2010.
