Deutsche Bank Hid $12 Billion In Losses To Avoid Bailout: Report
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/05/deutsche-bank-12-billion-losses_n_2247360.html
Deutsche Bank Hid $12 Billion In Losses To Avoid Bailout: Report
The Huffington Post
By Mark Gongloff
Posted: 12/05/2012 5:52 pm EST Updated: 12/06/2012 2:36 am EST
During the financial crisis, German banking behemoth Deutsche Bank seemed like one of the few banks in the U.S. and Europe strong enough to weather the crisis without a bailout. A new report suggests that strength may have been a mirage.
The Financial Times reports that three former bank employees told U.S. regulators that the bank hid $12 billion in losses on credit derivatives during the crisis.
That might not sound like a lot of money for a global bank like Deutsche Bank, but it is roughly twice as much money as it earned in profit in all of 2011. And it was enough to possibly mean the difference between needing a government bailout and not needing a bailout, according to the former employees.
The allegations were revealed in an offhand way in a Reuters report in July 2011 about disputes between the bank and the former employees. Deutsche Bank told Reuters and the FT that it had investigated the allegations and called them "wholly unfounded."