Deutsche Bank has notified financial regulators about possible violations of EU sanctions rules tied to Russian clients.
The German bank identified instances in its retail division where deposits above €100,000 ($117,598) were received from people covered by EU sanctions restrictions.
The cases emerged after Deutsche set up a task force to review its internal controls following changes to Germany’s sanctions enforcement framework in February.
Those changes, stemming from an EU directive, brought in tougher criminal penalties, faster enforcement and the removal of grace periods, increasing pressure on banks to identify and stop potentially banned transactions more quickly.
Under EU sanctions rules, banks are barred from taking deposits above €100,000 from Russian nationals, residents or businesses set up in Russia.
German outlet Finanz-Szene first reported the matter.
In response, the bank said: “Deutsche Bank continuously reviews its processes related to sanctions compliance as part of the ordinary course of business. Whenever we identify potential issues, we put in place appropriate measures to adapt and improve our processes and we inform the relevant supervisory authorities proactively.”
The disclosure follows a January search by German prosecutors at Deutsche’s Frankfurt headquarters as part of an investigation into suspected money laundering linked to Roman Abramovich.
According to chief executive Christian Sewing, that investigation concerns the bank’s handling of transactions between 2013 and 2018 and whether it was too slow to submit a suspicious activity report.
At the time, the focus was on connections to companies linked to Abramovich.
Abramovich, who has been under EU sanctions since 2022, has denied wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, in January, Bank of Scotland, a unit of Lloyds Banking Group, was fined by the UK watchdog over an account for a sanctioned individual.
The bank was fined £160,000 ($219,268.8) by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of HM Treasury, in this regard.
Although the watchdog did not name the concerned individual, several media sources identified the person to be Dmitrii Ovsiannikov, previously governor of Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea.
