Germany's Largest Bank Fined 8 Million Euros Over Technical Issues at Postbank
German Financial Regulator Imposes Fine on Deutsche Bank Due to Postbank Data Transfer Issues
Translated by Qiyas from الجريدة — Original source
Deutsche Bank is required to pay a fine of millions of euros due to problems that accompanied the transfer of Postbank customers to a shared information technology platform in 2023.
The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) announced on Thursday the imposition of a fine of 8 million euros on Germany’s largest bank.
The financial services regulator stated that Deutsche Bank did not take “appropriate regulatory measures to promptly address the significant increase in customer complaints” in 2023, which resulted from the transfer of customer data, adding that the bank also failed to promptly execute portfolio transfer requests.
Starting from Easter 2022, Deutsche Bank began transferring the data of approximately 12 million Postbank customers at the time, along with 7 million Deutsche Bank customers in Germany, to a shared platform in four phases as part of a project named “Unity.”
Customer complaints increased during the technological transition period, with some customers, for example, temporarily unable to access their accounts. The problems were particularly concentrated during the second phase of data transfer, coinciding with the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, when securities portfolios were affected, among other things.
The German financial regulator had previously criticized “significant disruptions in the processing of customer transactions at Postbank” and appointed a special monitor to oversee Deutsche Bank’s efforts to resolve the issues.
The regulator has now imposed a fine of 5.5 million euros due to “extreme delays in processing customer complaints,” and Deutsche Bank must pay an additional 2.5 million euros for delays in executing portfolio transfer requests.
A spokesperson for Deutsche Bank, listed on the DAX index of leading German companies, said in response to an inquiry that the bank “has comprehensively reviewed and resolved the issues that occurred several years ago related to the integration of Postbank’s IT systems into Deutsche Bank, and has continued to improve its procedures since then,” adding that the bank accepts the decision of the German financial regulator.
