Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $US630 million ($A832 million) in fines to US and UK regulators for failing to prevent around $US10 billion in suspicious trades being laundered out of Russia, settling a second major legal case this month.
The scheme involved so-called mirror trades between the bank's Moscow, London and New York offices from 2011 to 2015, in which it bought Russian blue-chip stocks in roubles on behalf of clients and sold the identical quantity of the same stocks at the same price through its London branch shortly afterwards.
"The offsetting trades here lacked economic purpose and could have been used to facilitate money laundering or enable other illicit conduct," the New York Department of Financial Services said.
"The bank missed numerous opportunities to detect, investigate and stop the scheme due to extensive compliance failures, allowing the scheme to continue for years."
Britain's Financial Conduct Authority separately fined Deutsche Bank STG163 million ($A270 million) for failing to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering controls between 2012 and 2015, allowing customers to transfer billions from Russia to offshore bank accounts "in a manner that is highly suggestive of financial crime".
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It is the largest financial penalty for anti money-laundering controls failings yet imposed by the FCA or its predecessor, the Financial Services Authority.
The Russian case settlements, on the heels of a $US7.2 billion ($A9.5 billion) agreement with the US Department of Justice earlier this month over the misselling of mortgage-backed securities, lift much of the uncertainty swirling around the bank over its exposure to fines and enforcement.
Deutsche Bank said the Russia-related settlement amounts were "materially reflected" in existing litigation reserves. It added, however, it was still co-operating with other regulators and authorities who had their own ongoing investigations.
The New York regulator, which licenses and supervises the New York branch, found Deutsche Bank conducted its business in an unsafe and unsound manner in violation of state banking law.
The trade of a Russian blue chip stock, typically valued at between $US2 million to $US3 million an order, was cleared through the bank's New York operations, with the sellers typically paying in US dollars, DFS said.
In addition to the penalty, Deutsche is required to retain an independent monitor to review the bank's compliance programs.
