German financial watchdog BaFin appointed an independent monitor for Deutsche Bank AG, stepping up pressure on Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing to fix problems servicing clients at its Postbank retail unit.
(Bloomberg) — German financial watchdog BaFin appointed an independent monitor for Deutsche Bank AG, stepping up pressure on Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing to fix problems servicing clients at its Postbank retail unit.
The monitor will oversee Deutsche Bank’s efforts to solve the deficiencies and report regularly to BaFin, the watchdog said in a statement on Monday. BaFin previously criticized the shortcomings at Deutsche Bank’s IT overhaul after a flood of client complaints.
The announcement marks the second time during Sewing’s tenure that BaFin resorted to the rare step of appointing a monitor, one of the strongest enforcement tools at the disposal of financial regulators. Deutsche Bank has been trying to overhaul or retire the IT at its Postbank subsidiary for more than a decade and in July declared the completion of the plan — known internally as Project Unity — to migrate client data to its owns systems.Â
Deutsche Bank said in July that finishing the project means it can finally start reaping some of the cost savings that it had initially hoped to achieve much earlier. The resources thrown at Project Unity were a main reason why the lender has fallen behind competitors in developing digital banking offerings.
BaFin previously appointed a monitor in 2018 to oversee the Deutsche Bank’s progress in improving internal controls. It later expanded that monitor’s mandate.
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