Deutsche Bank hopes to conclude key lawsuits by year-end

[FRANKFURT] Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest lender, is hoping to settle some of the key lawsuits it is currently embroiled in by the end of the year, one of its co-chief executives said in a newspaper interview Wednesday.

"We've already achieved a great deal. We want to conclude some of the key lawsuits by the end of the year," Juergen Fitschen told the mass-circulation daily Bild.

"But it's clear, of course, that we'll also do everything to prevent such lawsuits in future," added Mr Fitschen, who is stepping down as co-CEO at Deutsche Bank's upcoming shareholder meeting in May.

Mr Fitschen will then leave the bank under the sole charge of his current co-chief John Cryan, who was brought in last summer to help turn around the group's finances and restore its tarnished image.

The bank is currently entangled in a web of legal woes, facing as many as 6,000 different litigation cases, the provisions for which helped push it to a record loss of 6.8 billion euros (S$10.38 billion) last year.

It has set aside around 13 billion euros in provisions in all since 2012 for litigation ranging from its involvement in rigging interest rates, probes by Swiss authorities for suspected price fixing on the precious metals market and US investigations into suspicion of possible involvement in money-laundering.

Deutsche Bank, which has already warned that 2016 would also be a difficult year, is scheduled to publish its first-quarter results on Thursday.

Mr Fitschen's comments come amid reported tension on Deutsche Bank's supervisory board, where some members apparently feel that the group's legal counsel, Georg Thoma, is being over-zealous in his response to the scandals.

AFP