Deutsche Bank recently answered a catalogue of questions posed by the data-protection authorities of the Federal State of Hessen, where its headquarters is located, handing in a 9-page paper in response to accusations that it spied on members of both its board of directors and its supervisory board.

Deutsche Bank had previously admitted having problems in its company group security which led to the surveillance of a member of the board of directors, a member of the supervisory board as well as further managers and their families.

A second problem currently confronting Deutsche Bank is investigations being conducted by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) into Deutsch Bank’s alleged non-fulfilment of various reporting and monitoring obligations. The German Business Daily Handelsblatt reported in its 16 June 2009 issue that this special investigation might eclipse the data scandal since Deutsche Bank is alleged to also have infringed its reporting obligations with regard to its foreign participations.

Although many believe that compliance should take a back seat to economic advancement during the current crisis situation, obviously the German public institutions are not willing to provide a grace period with regard to corporate compliance infringements.