Deutsche Bank Former Executives Waive Half Their Bonuses
Deutsche Bank Ex-Executives Said to Forfeit Half Bonuses in Deal
(Bloomberg) -- Ten former and one incumbent executive board member of Deutsche Bank AG agreed to forfeit 38.4 million euros ($44.8 million) of outstanding bonus payments, drawing a line under almost two years of negotiations with the German lender related to misconduct fines.
Deutsche Bank said it won’t hold the management board members liable as part of the deal, which includes them receiving the remaining 31.4 million euros in unpaid bonuses, according to a statement Thursday from the lender. There’s insufficient evidence for actionable damage claims against the members, the bank said.
The lender has been seeking to persuade the former executives to contribute to billions of dollars in fines the lender had to pay because of past misconduct. Supervisory board Chairman Paul Achleitner said at the bank’s annual general meeting in May that an agreement with the 11 men was nearing.
Deutsche Bank’s “supervisory board appreciates the fact that with the additional waiver of bonuses, the management board members in office at that time are making a further personal contribution to closing this chapter,” Achleitner said in Thursday’s statement. “This helps us to look forward toward the future again.”
Achleitner said in May that the bank was withholding bonuses worth 7.27 million euros and 161,029 share awards from ex-co CEO Anshu Jain, as well as 4.64 million euros in cash payments and 124,160 share awards from ex-CEO Josef Ackermann. He did not name any other former board members, nor did he specify how much in total bonuses had been suspended.
The amount of foregone bonuses by each individual varies depending on the position held by the former board member in question, individual contracts, the length of their tenure on the board and to what extent bonuses have been suspended or have not vested yet, people briefed on the matter previously said. A big chunk of outstanding bonuses will vest in August, two people said previously.
Ackermann, Jain and former co-CEO Juergen Fitschen as well as former Chief Financial Officer Stefan Krause would give up the most in terms of bonuses given their former positions and length of tenure, one person said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Steven Arons in Frankfurt at sarons@bloomberg.net, Ambereen Choudhury in London at achoudhury@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Cindy Roberts