Deutsche Bank Has Over 1,000 Major Lawsuits Pending Against Them

Deutsche Bank has come clean to shareholders about their major legal and regulatory issues. The bank is facing 1,000 major (valued over 100,000 euros) lawsuits and more than 6,000 lawsuits overall.

Deutsche Bank has come clean to shareholders about the major legal and regulatory issues the company is dealing with. The bank is facing 1,000 "major" lawsuits, which are lawsuits valued at over 100,000 euros. Overall, they face more than 6,000 lawsuits in total.

Their legal bill for 2013 was a whooping $478 million and based on how things are going, the Deutsche lawyers are in for a similar payday this year.

Stefan Krause, DB's financial chief, told shareholders the bank is "expecting continued headwinds from legal matters." Over the past two years, DB already paid out $6.9 billion in settlements and fines, most of which were linked to the financial crisis. Now, the bank is facing "an array of investigations into the conduct of its employees." They have already put aside over $2 billion for settlements this year. 

Before this year's regulatory health check, Deutsche hopes to raise $11 billion in capital. Even if they succeed in this, it looks like much of it will be spent on legal matters. 

As for how Germany's largest bank stacks up against their counterparts in the U.S., they're coming close to Bank of America-size settlements, and their litigation costs are above those of J.P. Morgan Chase, but still below CitiGroup.