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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Deutsche Bank Put Under Monitor After Outage

MANHATTAN (CN) — An independent monitor must keep watch over Deutsche Bank after a five-day systems outage revealed the German lender to be unprepared for such disasters, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, empowered under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to bring more transparency to swap dealers, imposed a $2.5 million fine on Deutsche Bank a little more than a year ago for its failure "to properly report its swaps transactions from in or about January 2013 until July 2015."

The agency's order forced the bank to comply with remediation efforts, including beefing up reporting requirements and submitting periodic updates.

Then, Deutsche Bank's swap-data reporting system crashed on April 16.

The CFTC responded with a Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit claiming the incident amplified old problems and created news ones.

"Deutsche Bank's subsequent efforts to end the system outage repeatedly exacerbated existing reporting problems and often led to the discovery or creation of new reporting problems, many of which violate a previous CFTC order," the complaint said.

U.S. District Judge William Pauley called the consequence "significant" for the markets in a 5-page ruling published Thursday.

"Inaccurate and untimely reporting of swaps data undermines the integrity of the markets, and impedes the CFTC's mission to protect swaps customers," Pauley wrote.

"This is particularly true because Deutsche Bank reportedly commands one of the largest derivatives portfolios in the world," he continued, estimating the portfolio's value at the euro equivalent of $45.9 trillion.

The ruling appoints Paul Atkins, Esq. of Patomak Global Partners as an independent monitor.

"This court agrees that the appointment of an independent monitor is warranted," Pauley wrote.

Deutsche Bank and its attorney did not immediately respond to email requests for comment.

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