2023-09-07 17:38:04
Frankfurt Even after the unusually harsh reprimand from the financial regulator Bafin, Postbank customers can probably not hope that all deficiencies will be quickly eliminated. “The situation should normalize in all affected areas by the end of the year at the latest,” said a spokesman for Deutsche Bank’s parent company. In financial circles it is said that although the financial institution hopes for continuous improvements, it will still be months before normal operations can be ensured again.
On Monday evening, the Bafin reprimanded Deutsche Bank for massive problems with its private customer subsidiary Postbank. The supervisors have observed “significant impairments in the processing of customer business at Postbank since the turn of the year 2022/2023”. The financial regulator is therefore threatening the bank with “supervisory measures if these are appropriate”.
It is conceivable that Bafin will send a special representative to the bank again, impose fines or limit new business. Bafin had also asked the bank to “remedy the restrictions in customer service as quickly as possible”.
According to financial circles, a high four-digit number of users are affected by the difficulties. In total, Postbank has twelve million customers. Germany’s largest financial institution had drawn Postbank clients onto Deutsche Bank’s technical platforms in several steps.
“Successful graduation”
Since then, numerous users have been struggling with problems. Many could no longer log in, their sales were not displayed and the institute’s telephone hotline was often unavailable.
“Nevertheless, we have processing times in some service processes that do not meet our requirements.” Lars Stoy, head of the German private customer division
At the beginning of July, the bank spoke of a “successful completion” of the integration and praised itself for one of the “largest and most complex IT migration projects in the European banking sector”.
Now it is said in financial circles that the main problem is not the actual IT conversion, but the underlying processes and customer services that belong to the operations area. An insider speaks of a “gross misjudgment as to the resources necessary to handle the changeover”.
“We are working on improving the situation as quickly as possible,” emphasized Lars Stoy, head of the German private customer division, at the beginning of the week. But he also admitted: “Nevertheless, we have processing times in some service processes that do not meet our requirements.” At this point, the manager spoke of “a few weeks until the situation in the affected areas had returned to normal.”
Additional Resources
The institute is responding to the problems with additional capacities, as a spokesman for Deutsche Bank now emphasized: “In the past few weeks, we have increased our service teams by several hundred employees and will expand them even further.”
Claudius of Saints
The former Credit Suisse manager is a fan of quick decisions and wants to consistently get rid of anything that doesn’t fit the division’s future strategy.
(Photo: Deutsche Bank)
In the meantime, colleagues from other areas would also help to improve the situation at Postbank. However, it is said in financial circles that the processing of the cases that have arisen can only be accelerated to a limited extent despite these measures.
The massive problems at Postbank are also a mortgage for Stoy personally. He headed Postbank for years before taking responsibility for Deutsche Bank’s entire retail banking business.
In addition, the persistent problems at Postbank raise the question of how successfully Stoy’s boss, the new private customer executive Claudio de Sanctis, can implement his plans to digitize the mass customer business in the private customer division.
Backlog of garnishment accounts
Bafin’s harsh reprimand is increasingly becoming a burden on Deutsche Bank’s stock market price. Within a week, the share lost almost six percent of its value.
Deutsche Bank
On Monday evening, Bafin reprimanded the bank for massive problems at its private customer subsidiary Postbank.
(Photo: IMAGO)
The bank wants to process particularly precarious cases as quickly as possible. Bafin complained that there were significant impairments, particularly when setting up and managing so-called seizure protection accounts, “which sometimes have massive consequences for customers.” Highly indebted people are entitled to a garnishment protection account that protects a certain monthly allowance from access by creditors.
When releasing such credits, however, there were frequent massive delays at Postbank. This is serious for the owners of garnishment protection accounts, since they are usually in a financially precarious situation and the free credit is often their only financial means.
A technical solution is now intended to prevent the backlog in processing these cases from becoming even longer. “Thanks to new software solutions, we can process new orders to lift seizures largely automatically,” explained the spokesman. According to information from Handelsblatt, the number of open cases involving seizure accounts currently amounts to around 3,500. Deutsche Bank did not want to comment on this number.
On Tuesday, Germany’s top consumer advocate Ramona Pop called on Bafin to make a clear statement to Postbank. The supervisory authority should make it clear that “consumers expect uncomplicated compensation for their damages”.
It is said in financial circles that the bank will examine claims for damages as usual. Customers who could prove that they suffered financial loss due to the failures and delays at Postbank would be compensated.
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