Prosecutors, federal police, and other government officials searched Deutsche Bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt on Friday, citing concerns of money laundering that the bank had reported to authorities.
Deutsche Bank has been attempting to rebuild its reputation under Chief Executive Christian Sewing, following a series of embarrassing and costly regulatory failures.
Deutsche Bank said in a statement that the search concerned questionable transactions that it had reported to authorities and that it was fully cooperating.
Prosecutors stated they had a search warrant, but they didn’t say what it was for. According to them, personnel from the banking regulator BaFin were also present.
BaFin and the federal police department both declined to comment.
Following the announcement of the search, the bank’s stock dropped more than 3 percent, and was down 2.7 percent by early afternoon in Frankfurt.
Money laundering issues have previously landed the bank in deep water.
For example, the US Department of Justice has been investigating it for years over trades that officials claim were used to launder $10 billion out of Russia, resulting in a nearly $700 million fine for the German bank.
BaFin took the unprecedented step of appointing KPMG as a special monitor at Deutsche Bank to examine money laundering procedures in 2018.
Last year, BaFin ordered Deutsche to implement more anti-money laundering procedures, and the regulator expanded the auditor’s scope.
Deutsche Bank has announced that it has increased its anti-money laundering resources.
The bank reported a better-than-expected 17 percent increase in first-quarter profit as investment banking revenue increased this week, but it warned that the Ukraine conflict could hurt annual earnings.
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