Yahoo Finance Major global bank deals Trump brutal $473m election blow
Deutsche Bank plans to sever ties with US President Donald Trump following the 2020 election in an attempt to stem reputational damage.
The Germany-based bank currently has US$340 million (AU$473 million) in loans to the Trump Organization, which is the group of businesses owned by Trump and run by his two sons.
According to Reuters, Deutsche Bank has grown tired of the bad press and “serious collateral damage” coming from the relationship, with the bank’s reputation team now looking for ways to cast off the loans.
Deutsche Bank has lent more than US$2 billion to Trump in two years, one of the three unnamed sources told Reuters, and has been lending to Trump since the late 1990s.
The bank is allegedly considering selling the loans in the secondary market, although officials fear they would face trouble finding a buyer.
Democrat member of the Senate banking committee and former presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has put Deutsche Bank in the spotlight over its money laundering practices and has also asked for details into its relationship with Trump.
In a letter from Warren and three other senators, she raised “troubling new concerns about the extent to which Deutsche Bank holds financial leverage over the president”.
“The American public has a right to know if Deutsche Bank is providing special financial favors to the president or his family’s company so that they can determine if these favors are affecting Trump administration policy as it relates to Deutsche Bank,” the senators wrote.
And the bank is growing anxious over the likelihood of a Democrat victory, and the associated investigations into the bank that would follow.
According to the reports, Deutsche Bank executives believe that if Joe Biden secures the win, they will however have more freedom to sever their ties with Trump and avoid some of the scrutiny.
However, if Trump returns to the White House, the executives are concerned about the reputational risk associated with ending the loans while he is in office.
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