Special committee on financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance (TAX3) meets for a public hearing on "Deutsche Bank", in the European Parliament in Brussels. Statements by Jens FURHOFF, DG of Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering - Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, Jeppe KOFOD (S&D, DK), Rapporteur, Stephan WILKEN, Head of Anti Financial Crime and Deutsche Bank's Group Anti Money Laundering Officer - Deutsche Bank Group, and Thomas MANN (EPP, DE), Rapporteur.

Brussels

KOFOD, Jeppe (S&D, DK)

fight against tax fraud and evasion (T)

public hearing

MANN, Thomas (EPP, DE)

"Deutsche Bank": extracts from the public hearing

SOUNDBITE (German), Jens FURHOFF, DG of Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering - Bundesanstalt f&#252;r Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, Your interest in my expertise in connection with Deutsche Bank is something that I cannot share with you. Deutsche Bank is something that is being looked at, it is under the ECB, it is for the ECB to to decide on measures.

SOUNDBITE (German), Jens FURHOFF, DG of Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering - Bundesanstalt f&uuml;r Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, What is relevant at the moment for BaFin when it comes to CumEx are issues of solvency. We have illegal profits over years, can those be recalled? Well that would have impact on the viability and profitability of CumEx, the authority would have to check if further own capital would be drained away and whether this could lead to insolvency. 

SOUNDBITE (German), Jens FURHOFF, DG of Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering - Bundesanstalt f&uuml;r Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, Where there were criminal charges, the BaFin passed the information on to the prosecution authorities. There were shortcomings in the past in the bank, the BaFin dealt with those issues and supported the bank to address them. 

SOUNDBITE (English), Stephan WILKEN, Head of Anti Financial Crime and Deutsche Bank&apos;s Group Anti Money Laundering Officer - Deutsche Bank Group, We need to reestablish trust as an industry and also as Deutsche Bank. And one element of establishing trust is to make sure that our internal policies reflect legislation and regulation and that everyone in the bank understands what good market practice is and what standards of conduct we expect.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jeppe KOFOD (S&amp;D, DK), Rapporteur, Already in 2013 as you might know the US bank JP Morgan stopped providing correspondence service to Danske Bank due to concerns over share shady transactions. So Mr. Wilken, why did it take Deutsche Bank two years longer than JP Morgan to stop offering correspondent service to Danske Bank's Estonian branch?

SOUNDBITE (English), Stephan WILKEN, Head of Anti Financial Crime and Deutsche Bank's Group Anti Money Laundering Officer - Deutsche Bank Group,  Towards the end of that relationship we were increasingly concerned with some of the transactions that we saw and in our regular dialogue. We then concluded that it would be in our best interest to exit the relationship which was then done in October 2015. I cannot speculate on other banks sort of strategies in this regard and everyone has their own risk assessment and global strategies in correspondent banking.

SOUNDBITE (German), Thomas MANN (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, Another point, Danske Bank in October 2015 you broke off that relationship but why were there delays and the hesitations you could have said there were clear signs of unhealthy developments and you should have been firmer in your response.

SOUNDBITE (English), Stephan WILKEN, Head of Anti Financial Crime and Deutsche Bank's Group Anti Money Laundering Officer - Deutsche Bank Group On breaking off our business contacts. Well that has to be organized and planned. Particularly when you're dealing with a clearing relationship, correspondent bank relationship, you need to help an EU regulated bank to find an alternative, a replacement.