Proposed transfer of ex-Deutsche Bank employees' Jersey custody accounts to Jersey's Receiver General: What to do if you are affected
2 March 2020
Deutsche Bank is in the process of winding down its operations in the Channel Islands. This forms part of a wider corporate strategy aimed at making Deutsche Bank's global operations simpler and more efficient.
As part of that process, we have approached all clients holding custody accounts with Deutsche Bank International Ltd ("DBIL") seeking their instruction to transfer their account to an alternative provider. However, we have been unable to obtain instructions from a proportion of those clients, for whom we no longer have current contact details or as they have not responded to our request. These custody accounts belong to former employees of the global Deutsche Bank group, and contain shares awarded to them during the course of their employment with us.
Given that DBIL is winding down its operations, DBIL has applied to the Royal Court in Jersey (the "Court") for its blessing of our proposal to transfer these custody accounts to Her Majesty's Receiver General in Jersey (the "Receiver General"). Under our proposal, the Receiver General will hold the assets currently in those accounts for a period of 15 years, in which time the account holder will be able to obtain their assets from the Receiver General (subject to payment of the Receiver General's fee of at least £500). Once that 15 year period has passed, ownership of the assets will pass to the Receiver General and the client will no longer have any claim to them.
DBIL's application to the Court will be considered at a hearing on 18 March 2020 at 10am (the "Hearing") (the Court reference for those proceedings is 2020/032). If the Court grants its blessing of our proposal at the Hearing, we will then arrange promptly for the custody accounts to be transferred to the Receiver General. Clients affected by our proposal have the right to (i) receive a copy of the Representation and first affidavit of Jacqueline Foot (without exhibit) and (ii) make submissions to the Court in relation to our proposal, by request sent by email at db.sharescheme@db.com.
If a client wishes to make submissions to the Court on our proposal, they may do so in two ways. First, they may attend the Hearing (either in person or by instructing a Jersey Advocate). Second, they may send their submissions in writing – we will ensure that any written submissions that we receive from affected clients by or before 4pm on 16 March 2020 are placed before the Court (provided they are sent to us by email at db.sharescheme@db.com).
If you believe that you have a Deutsche Bank account in the Channel Islands and have not been contacted about the future of your account, we encourage you to contact us as a matter of urgency by email to db.sharescheme@db.com.
About Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank provides commercial and investment banking, retail banking, transaction banking and asset and wealth management products and services to corporations, governments, institutional investors, small and medium-sized businesses, and private individuals. Deutsche Bank is Germany’s leading bank, with a strong position in Europe and a significant presence in the Americas and Asia Pacific.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they include statements about our beliefs and expectations and the assumptions underlying them. These statements are based on the plans, estimates and projections currently available to the management of Deutsche Bank. Forward-looking statements therefore speak only as of the date they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update any of them in light of new information or future events. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could therefore cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Such factors include the conditions in the financial markets in Germany, in Europe, in the United States and elsewhere from which Deutsche Bank derives a substantial portion of its revenues and in which the bank holds a substantial portion of its assets, the development of asset prices and market volatility, potential defaults of borrowers or trading counterparties, the implementation of strategic initiatives of the bank, the reliability of the bank’s risk management policies, procedures and methods, and other risks referenced in the bank’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Such factors are described in detail in the bank’s SEC Form 20-F of 22 March 2019 under the heading “Risk Factors”. Copies of this document are readily available upon request or can be downloaded from www.db.com/ir.