Deutsche Bank shares slip on reports of Fed investigation over Danske Bank scandal

Shares of Deutsche Bank slid more than 1 percent in early trading on reports that the U.S. Federal Reserve is investigating the German lender’s role in a money laundering scheme.

A report published in Bloomberg, citing sources, said the Fed probe is in very early stages as it examines whether Deutsche Bank’s U.S. arm was involved in moving funds out of the Estonian branch of Danske Bank.

Deutsche Bank has been cooperating with the Fed, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

The German lender, however told CNBC that there were no investigations taking place.

“There are no probes but we have received several requests for information from regulators and law enforcement agencies around the world. It is not surprising at all that the investigating authorities and banks themselves have an interest in the Danske case and the lessons to be learned from it. Deutsche Bank continues to provide information to and cooperate with the investigating agencies,” Deutsche Bank told CNBC in an emailed statement on Wednesday.

Danske Bank is being investigated in Denmark, Estonia, Britain and the United States over 200 billion euros ($227 billion) of suspicious payments through its Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015.

In November, Deutsche Bank confirmed its involvement in processing payments worth $150 billion for scandal-ridden Danske Bank.

Deutsche Bank spokesperson confirmed in a statement to Reuters in November that the lender acted as a correspondent bank for Danske in Estonia. “Our role was to process payments for Danske Bank. We terminated the relationship in 2015 after identifying suspicious activity,” the spokesperson said at the time.

Deutsche Bank’s Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing told German policymakers and clients last week that the bank was investigating the Danske scandal internally and that it had seen no indications of any misconduct on their part.