Deutsche Bank paid $630 million over Russian mirror-trading transactions in 2017. Regulators in the United States and United Kingdom said the bank had processed billions of dollars through trades that moved money out of Russia while disguising the transactions’ purpose.
The scheme used paired trades. A client bought securities in rubles through Deutsche Bank’s Moscow operation, while an associated party sold equivalent securities through the bank’s London operation in exchange for U.S. dollars or another hard currency.
The transactions, conducted mainly between 2011 and 2015, were known as mirror trades. Regulators said the bank failed to maintain adequate anti-money-laundering controls and did not properly detect or report suspicious activity.
The 2017 settlements involved a $425 million penalty from New York regulators and a £163 million penalty from the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority. The case is distinct from Deutsche Bank’s later sanctions and benchmark-related controversies.