German regulator awaits Deutsche Bank response to investigation

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German regulator Bafin will wait for an official response from Deutsche Bank before deciding on any consequences for the country's biggest lender from its investigation into alleged attempts to manipulate benchmark interest rates such as Libor.

Bafin banking supervisor Raimund Roeseler said on Tuesday that the regulator had completed its investigation and that it had delivered the report to the bank.

“The investigation is closed. The report is now with Deutsche Bank and we’ve requested their response,” Roeseler said at a news conference.

“After we have gotten their response then we’ll consider any necessary consequences. The types of consequences will depend on the contents of the response."

Deutsche Bank confirmed that it had received the investigation report and that it planned to deliver a reply, likely in the coming weeks.

Any Bafin-led action would lag that of U.S. and British authorities, who forced Deutsche Bank to pay $2.5 billion (£1.6 billion) in April for manipulation of the Libor benchmark interest rate.

The Financial Conduct Authority also said senior Deutsche staff had wrongly claimed that Bafin had prevented them from sharing a critical Bafin report on Deutsche, something that the Bafin's Roeseler stressed again on Tuesday.

"We have never forbidden a German bank from sharing one of our reports with a foreign regulator," Roeseler said.

Bafin was expected to incorporate the U.S. and British findings in its investigation, Reuters has reported.

Any consequences come at a difficult time for Deutsche Bank, which has paid record fines for Libor but not yet been involved in settlements for foreign exchange benchmark-rigging, unlike other major trading banks.

Roeseler said Bafin's forex investigation continued. "We're not done yet, not completely," he said.

Bafin has already concluded that Deutsche co-Chief Executive Anshu Jain, who headed the group's investment bank when some of the misconduct took place, was not aware of, or part of, possible attempts to manipulate interest rates, a source told Reuters late last year.

The bank’s own internal investigations into the Libor and currency markets have found nothing that implicates the bank’s two co-chief executives, Anshu Jain or Juergen Fitschen, officials both inside and outside of Deutsche Bank have said.

Bonn-based Bafin also has the right to dismiss a bank's uppermost executives it judges to be unqualified or untrustworthy.

While its formal, legal authority to dismiss bankers does not extend below the management board, Bafin is thought to wield considerable influence over decisions to dismiss personnel down the ranks.

(Reporting by Thomas Atkins; Editing by Kirsti Knolle/Mark Heinrich)