Deutsche Bank once again ends up under the lens of international supervision. According to an article in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung entitled "Where does the money come from", the supervisors of the ECB are allegedly alarmed by three shareholders, one Chinese and two Qataris, who have great influence on the German banking giant.
According to the newspaper, last spring the Chinese group HNA, a conglomerate of companies ranging from logistics to finance, would have increased its stake in Deutsche Bank to 9,9%. Hna had entered the capital of the German Bank (surprise) last February with a 3% stake and had risen to 5% the following month, participating in the 8 billion capital increase of the Frankfurt group. Since last May, HNA has been the largest shareholder of Deutsche Bank.
Meanwhile, two sheikhs of the ruling family of Qatar - partners of Deutsche Bank since 2014 - would also come to hold equally significant stakes. The Arab monarchy was embargoed on June 5 by a group of countries led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt for alleged support for terrorist organizations (above all, the Muslim Brotherhood).
"This new shareholding structure draws the attention of the European financial supervisory bodies", explains the article, specifying that the supervisors of the ECB are allegedly "verifying" whether a shareholders' control procedure should be initiated.
This would be a novelty, writes the newspaper, since such checks can only be carried out on shareholders holding shares greater than 10%. In order to proceed, in this case, the supervisors will have to demonstrate that the partners in question actually have a lot of influence. All three shareholders have introduced a representative to the supervisory board.
The ECB's checks could focus on three aspects:
1) whether the investors are reliable and financially sound;
2) whether the origin of the capital is lawful;
3) if the shareholders are not connected to illegal activities such as money laundering or the financing of terrorist activities.
