CFTC case against Deutsche Bank over data reporting failures finally ends
The lawsuit brought by the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) against Deutsche Bank over a series of alleged violations, including swap data reporting failures, has finally come to an end.
Let’s note that this happens more than a year after the CFTC and Deutsche Bank reached a $10 million settlement.
On October 20, 2021, Judge Sidney H. Stein of the New York Southern District Court signed an order closing the matter. The Judge explains that this case was reassigned to the New York Southern District Court on July 28, 2021. On June 17, 2020, a Consent Order for Permanent Injunction, Civil Monetary Penalty, and Other Equitable Relief Against Deutsche Bank AG was signed by Judge William H. Pauley and consented to by all parties.
Accordingly, the Clerk of Court was directed to close this matter. Let’s note the long period of time between the settlement and the actual end of the lawsuit. There was no explanation for such a delay, although the red tape in US Courts, as well as the complicated work environment due to the Covid-19 restrictions may be to blame.
Let’s recall that, in June 2020, the CFTC announced the settlement of two enforcement matters involving Deutsche Bank.
In the first matter, Deutsche Bank AG resolved federal court charges stemming from alleged violations of various swap data reporting and other regulatory violations.
The consent order stems from a complaint filed in August 2016, after an unprecedented swap reporting platform outage at Deutsche Bank that began on April 16, 2016. For the next five days, Deutsche Bank was unable to report any swap data for multiple asset classes. According to the consent order, Deutsche Bank’s efforts to end the system outage exacerbated existing reporting problems and led to the creation of new reporting problems, many of which violated the 2015 order.
In the second matter, the CFTC issued an administrative order against Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. (DBSI), filing and settling charges that two of DBSI’s traders engaged in spoofing. According to the order, DBSI manually placed bids or offers on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) with the intent to cancel those bids or offers before execution, an illegal practice known as spoofing.