Germany-based financial institution Deutsche Bank has announced that it reached reconciliation with a part of the plaintiffs who made accusations in Postbank ’s acquisition. As per the information detailed in the press release, Deutsche Bank made substantial progress in its discussions with plaintiffs in the litigation regarding the acquisition of Postbank and the offer price paid to former shareholders.

The lender was previously accused of underpaying the plaintiffs when it took over Postbank in 2010, with the allegations bouncing around in the courts for several years. Currently, Deutsche Bank underlined that it reached agreements with over 80 plaintiffs representing nearly 60% of the total claims in the litigation and settled based on EUR 13 per share as proposed by the bank. In addition, it is mentioned that among the plaintiffs who agreed to a settlement is also one of the largest individual plaintiffs in the proceedings, accounting for one-third of all claims. The reconciliation concluded by the time of the announcement is expected to consume approximately 45% of the total provisions which were taken concerning the claims by plaintiffs covered by the agreements.

On the other hand, the remaining provisions related to these specific plaintiffs are set to be released. Moreover, Deutsche Bank projects that this is set to have a positive impact of nearly EUR 430 million on its pre-tax profit in the third quarter of 2024. Also, if the bank enters into settlement agreements with other plaintiffs, it could see additional positive implications on the total provision taken for the litigation. Previous news regarding Deutsche Bank’s acquisition of Postbank Back in October 2023, Deutsche Bank closed multiple Postbank branches, intending to improve digital service after its mismanaged IT migration.

At that time, the bank planned to shut down as many as 250 of the Postbank’s branches by 2025. The decision intended to prevent further disagreements with customers who were affected by the mismanaged IT migration and disrupted services that took place previously. .