German watchdog BaFin Says Deutsche Bank’s Postbank Problems Are Unacceptable
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Deutsche Bank is still facing issues with the fallout from the controversial IT integration, as customers cannot have full access to their accounts.
In July, the bank stated that migrating 50 billion data sets and 12 million Postbank clients to different IT systems was done without glitches. However, its German retail business is still facing a series of issues.
Several critical internal workflows have stopped working while service centers have been overcrowded by increased client complaints. Some clients have complained that they have been locked out of their accounts for weeks.
The service disruption has already seen unprecedented rebuke from the public, with German regulator BaFin criticizing Deutsche Bank for poor handling of customer business.
The financial watchdog has also warned that the bank should offer more protection to the customers by complying with the relevant statutory deadline.
Deutsche Bank Apologized, But Issues Not Yet Resolved
Following the public criticism of Deutsche, Germany’s biggest bank apologized for the issues customers have been facing. The bank stated that it is making much effort to resolve all the problems and prevent future occurrences.
The bank also noted that fixing the problem is now its top priority. Christian Sewing, Deutsche Bank’s Chief Executive Officer, stated that the bank is trying to correct the problem. He has already called a town hall meeting to address staff and brief them on how to speed up the solution.
BaFin Considers Sanctions Against The Bank
BaFin is also planning to place some “supervisory measures” if it finds it necessary to protect customers.
Deutsche Bank has faced several issues after its unfortunate acquisition of domestic rival Postbank in 2010.
It seems the bank has inherited the troubled retail lender’s woes, which have lasted for over a decade. Deutsche has been looking to sell off Postbank, but getting a buyer for the company, formally part of Germany’s state-owned postal service, has not been successful.
After the botched effort, Deutsche integrated Postbank into its larger banking enterprise, maintaining only its branches and the brand name.
The bank completed the “Unity” project in July this year after moving the last batch of clients’ data to the company’s IT system. However, some internal workflows have collapsed since then, although the bank insisted that no data was corrupted or lost in the process.
