German regulator fines Deutsche Bank €8 million over Postbank customer migration issues

Germany's financial regulator ‌BaFin said ​on Thursday that it had fined Deutsche Bank €8 million ($8.9 million) for shortcomings in migrating customers of ‌its Postbank unit to a shared IT platform. The incident in 2023 prompted BaFin, which had called the troubles "unacceptable", to appoint a supervisor at Deutsche Bank. The ‌move followed reported complaints of Postbank customers not having access to their ‌funds for weeks and having direct debits rejected, jeopardising their credit scores.

The watchdog said Deutsche Bank "failed to put in place appropriate organisational arrangements to deal promptly with the increased volume ⁠of ​customer complaints arising ⁠from the migration of customer data." "Furthermore, the company failed to execute orders for the transfer of ⁠securities accounts without delay," it added.

Deutsche Bank said it had resolved all ​the issues and had "continuously improved our processes since then". "Deutsche Bank accepts ⁠BaFin's decision," it said.

The issue was a setback for Deutsche Bank's effort to restore credibility ⁠after ​raids by authorities, fines for lapses in money laundering controls and other penalties. Deutsche Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing said at the time that ⁠Deutsche had made mistakes on Postbank and that it had devoted hundreds of ⁠additional workers ⁠to tackle the issues.

"We have not lived up to our responsibility," Sewing said at the time. ($1 = 0.9027 euros)