The fine comes as the bank is already saddled with about $1.5bn in penalty to settle potential claims over alleged manipulation of interest rate.
According to the watchdog, the fine has been levied for various activities, which include misleading the DFSA, failures in DBDIFC’s internal governance and systems and controls and in its client take-on as well as anti-money laundering processes.
The DFSA’s action follows an investigation into the DIFC branch, which focused on its wealth-management activities from January 2011 to January 2014.
Preliminary investigations led the regulator to believe that this was simply a case of failure to classify few customers as clients and denying them protection as per rules but the detailed investigation revealed wider failings at the division.
As part of its investigations, the DFSA found that the bank did not take adequate steps to address the issues even though it was aware that its Private Wealth Management business (PWM) was operating in breach of DFSA requirements.
Also, DFSA was provided false information by some staff on several occasions about the nature and scope of activities that were undertaken by the business.
DFSA chief executive Ian Johnston said: "One of the pillars of the DIFC regulatory framework is that Authorised Persons must deal with the DFSA in an open and co-operative manner and must disclose appropriately any information of which the DFSA would reasonably be expected to be notified."
"Had DBDIFC cooperated at an early stage of the investigation, the matter would have been resolved far sooner and at significantly less costs to both the DFSA and the firm."
Following the conclusion of the investigation, DBDIFC agreed to settle the matter.
Image: Deutsche Bank Twin Towers in Frankfurt, Germany. Photo: courtesy of Thomas Wolf
