Finance
German police search Deutsche Bank offices in money laundering probe
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 28, 2026
3 min readLast updated: January 28, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 28, 2026
3 min readLast updated: January 28, 2026
German police raided Deutsche Bank offices in Frankfurt and Berlin, investigating money laundering. The investigation targets unnamed individuals and bank employees.
By Tom Sims and Matthias Inverardi
FRANKFURT, Jan 28 (Reuters) - German federal police searched Deutsche Bank offices in Frankfurt and Berlin on Wednesday in an investigation related to money laundering, Frankfurt prosecutors said.
Several money laundering lapses have cropped up at Germany's largest bank over the last decade, prompting scrutiny from regulators, fines and police raids.
Prosecutors said in an emailed statement they were investigating as-yet unidentified individuals and bank employees. Two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters the case involved transactions between 2013 and 2018.
Prosecutors declined to comment on the time frame.
"In the past, Deutsche Bank maintained business relationships with foreign companies which, in the course of further investigations, are themselves suspected of having been used for money laundering purposes," the prosecutors said.
Deutsche Bank confirmed the searches, but declined to give any details.
"The bank is cooperating fully with the public prosecutor's office," it said in a statement.
The action appeared to be lower-key than previous raids.
There was no visible police presence at Deutsche Bank's headquarters in central Frankfurt on Wednesday, contrasting with previous raids in which multiple police vehicles parked outside.
Deutsche Bank's shares were 3% lower in mid-afternoon trade.
SEARCHES A DAY AHEAD OF RESULTS
The searches come a day before Deutsche Bank is due to report its 2025 results, which analysts' consensus forecasts show could involve its biggest net profit since 2007.
Deutsche Bank's anti-money laundering controls have caught the attention of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic.
In January 2017, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay U.S. and UK regulators $630 million in fines over artificial trades between Moscow, London and New York that authorities said were used to launder $10 billion out of Russia.
The U.S. Federal Reserve fined the bank an additional $41 million for failing to ensure its systems would detect money laundering in May 2017.
In 2018, months after Christian Sewing became CEO, police spent two days searching the bank as part of an investigation into money laundering allegations linked to the Panama Papers.
Deutsche Bank was again searched in 2022 over whether it had filed so-called suspicious activity reports in a timely fashion.
"Further strengthening and developing our internal controls remains a priority for us," Deutsche Bank Chairman Alexander Wynaendts told investors last year.
(Writing by Tom Sims and Miranda Murray; Additional reporting by Tilman Blasshofer; Editing by Louise Heavens, Hugh Lawson, Mark Potter and Alexander Smith)
Money laundering is the process of making illegally obtained money appear legitimate. It typically involves three steps: placement, layering, and integration, which disguise the origins of the funds.
An investigation is a systematic inquiry or examination into an event or situation to uncover facts, gather evidence, and determine the truth. In finance, it often relates to compliance and legal matters.
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