By German News Agency
German lender Deutsche Bank has settled a €152 million ($176 million) lawsuit brought by a former investment banker out of court, a bank spokesperson said.
He said the parties had settled “all claims and allegations.” No details were provided, but the spokesman said that the settlement would “have only a small financial impact in the third quarter of 2026.”
A hearing before a Frankfurt court scheduled for Thursday has been cancelled after the plaintiff, who had sought damages of hundreds of millions of euros, withdrew his suit.
The dispute concerned transactions by Deutsche Bank with Italy’s Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which led to criminal proceedings in Italy.
The former investment banker had sought compensation for alleged damage to his career caused by the Italian criminal proceedings and an initial judgment, according to Deutsche Bank’s 2025 annual report.
The plaintiff alleged that the bank had used a questionable accounting method in earlier years and then made him a scapegoat when regulators and the press became aware of the issue.
Four similar suits are pending in London. According to Deutsche Bank, the total amount in dispute in these cases exceeds £600 million ($810 million). The bank has also already reached an out-of-court settlement with a sixth former employee.
Deutsche Bank has repeatedly rejected the claims and allegations.
The dispute stems from complex derivatives transactions that Deutsche Bank entered into in 2008 with Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena and one of its subsidiaries. The transactions were subsequently reclassified.
In 2019, five former Deutsche Bank employees and one employee, who was still working for the bank at the time, were convicted in Italy of aiding and abetting accounting fraud with market manipulation.
They were sentenced to several years in prison but were acquitted in an appeal in 2022.
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