Top Democratic lawmakers call for investigation into Deutsche Bank controls

FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of Deutsche Bank is pictured in Frankfurt, Germany, March 19, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of Deutsche Bank is pictured in Frankfurt, Germany, March 19, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo

Thomson Reuters

By Michelle Price

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two top Democratic U.S. senators on Thursday called for the Senate to open an investigation into Germany's Deutsche Bank over its compliance with U.S. anti-money laundering and bank secrecy laws.

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen said in a statement that they had written to the chair of the Senate Banking Committee asking for the probe in light of investigations into the bank by European authorities that called into question its compliance controls.

A spokeswoman for Mike Crapo, the Republican chair of the Senate Banking committee who has the power to approve a probe, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokesman for Deutsche Bank did not immediately provide comment, but the bank has previously said it would cooperate with any investigations into its affairs.

Police raided six Deutsche Bank offices in and around Frankfurt last month over money laundering allegations linked to the “Panama Papers.” Investigators are looking into the activities of two unnamed Deutsche Bank employees alleged to have helped clients set up offshore firms to launder money, the prosecutor’s office said at the time.

"Given the Committee’s jurisdiction over banking regulatory enforcement, Deutsche Bank’s history of regulatory problems, and the recent allegations of money laundering that resulted in the recent raid conducted by German law enforcement, we request that the Banking Committee undertake an investigation into Deutsche Bank and its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) regulations," Warren and Van Hollen wrote to Senator Crapo.

(Reporting by Michelle Price; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)

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