Trump's long-favoured banks pull back amid riot fallout

Washington

TWO of Donald Trump's favoured banks are pulling away from the billionaire president in the wake of last week's deadly riot at the US Capitol.

Deutsche Bank has decided to refrain from further business with Mr Trump and his company, said a person with knowledge of the matter, asking not to be identified because the deliberations were confidential. Mr Trump owes the Frankfurt-based lender more than US$300 million.

And Signature Bank, the New York lender that's long catered to his family, said it is cutting ties while it presses for his resignation. Signature is closing two personal accounts in which Mr Trump held about US$5.3 million, a spokesperson for the firm said on Monday.

"We believe the appropriate action would be the resignation of the president of the United States, which is in the best interests of our nation and the American people," the bank said in a separate statement on Monday.

The lenders are following social media outlets and other companies in suspending ties with the president after he encouraged attendees at a rally last week to march on the Capitol, where they stormed the building and interrupted the certification of the electoral college vote. At least five people died in the mayhem and its immediate aftermath.

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Signature has served Mr Trump and others in his orbit, including Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Michael Cohen. In 2011, the bank appointed Ivanka to its board, but she stepped down a couple of years later.

"We have never before commented on any political matter and hope to never do so again," Signature said in its statement. The bank will not do business in the future with any members of Congress who voted to disregard the electoral college, the spokesperson said.

Deutsche Bank said last month that Mr Trump's long-time banker resigned. Rosemary Vrablic, who worked in the private banking division, helped manage the outgoing president's relationship with the bank as the German lender lent hundreds of millions of dollars of loans to Mr Trump's company over a number of years. That relationship subjected the lender to pressure from lawmakers and prosecutors for information during Mr Trump's presidency. BLOOMBERG