US Democrats press Deutsche Bank for answers on Trump accounts

Democrats in the US Congress on Thursday blasted Deutsche Bank for refusing to hand over information on its business ties to President Donald Trump.

The troubled German financial giant this month denied requests from Democratic lawmakers for information on its own internal reviews into money laundering in Russia and its dealings with Trump and members of his family.

Trump's relationship with the bank has thrust Deutsche Bank into the political spotlight, as it is a significant creditor to Trump and faces a Justice Department investigation into money laundering.

In a letter Thursday, five Democrats on the financial services committee of the House of Representatives said privacy laws did not prevent the bank from turning over information on the internal reviews.

The authors noted that one of bank's attorneys, Steven Ross, had said as much in a scholarly article in 2012.

"Such a denial is especially inappropriate given that a number of our requests do not require the furnishing of information that would invoke the aforementioned statutes at all," the letter said.

A bank spokeswoman told AFP on Thursday the company still believed it was prohibited from complying.

"Our lawyers will respond to the legal questions raised by the individual members of Congress in due course," the spokeswoman said.

"In the meantime, we continue to refer the members to the legal basis from our previous response."

Without the cooperation of majority Republican members of the House panel, Democrats may be unable to issue subpoenas to compel the bank to turn over the reports.

Deutsche Bank has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines over Russia-related money laundering violations in 2017.