German regulator fines Deutsche Bank US$8.9 million euros over Postbank customer migration issues

[FRANKFURT] Germany’s financial regulator said on Thursday (Nov 12) that it had fined Deutsche Bank eight million euros (US$8.9 million) for shortcomings in migrating customers of its Postbank unit to a shared IT platform.

The incident in 2023 prompted the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority – or Bafin – to appoint a supervisor at Deutsche.

The move followed reported complaints of Postbank customers not having access to their funds for weeks and having direct debits rejected, jeopardising their credit scores.

The watchdog, which previously called the troubles “unacceptable”, said that Deutsche “failed to put in place appropriate organisational arrangements to deal promptly with the increased volume of customer complaints arising from the migration of customer data”.

“Furthermore, the company failed to execute orders for the transfer of securities accounts without delay,” it added.

Deutsche said it had resolved all the issues and had “continuously improved our processes since then”. The lender added that it “accepts Bafin’s decision”.

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The issue was a setback for Deutsche’s effort to restore credibility after raids by authorities, fines for lapses in money laundering controls and other penalties.

Deutsche CEO Christian Sewing said at the time that the lender had made mistakes on Postbank, and that it had devoted hundreds of additional workers to tackle the issues.

“We have not lived up to our responsibility,” he said then. REUTERS