Deutsche Bank ordered to pay 2.9 million to preferential share customers for 'misleading point-of-sale information'

ANOTHER bank has been ordered by a judge to pay back savings to customers which were invested in preferential shares without their knowledge after these were mis-sold, leading to the account-holder losing everything.

Deutsche Bank is obliged to refund 2.9 million euros to 49 account-holders because of 'not having provided sufficient information' about what the shares were, nor the risk the customers were taking.

The case dates back to 2011 when all 49 customers filed legal action collectively after losing investments ranging from 22,000 to 298,000 euros.

Deutsche Bank's defence was that the 'profile' of the investors was such that they 'would have understood' about the shares since they were 'familiar with hybrid financial services products' – but this was rejected by Madrid Provincial Court thanks to the successful representation by solicitors' firms Zunzunegui and Jausas.

The customers lost their initial case in the Court of First Instance number 56 in Madrid, but appealed to the Provincial Court and won.

“The plaintiffs were giving their consent to a financial services product which was not what they really wanted or were searching for,” says the judge's verdict, which added that the contract information given to the investing parties was 'incomplete' and 'confusing' and could easily have given rise to a 'representation of a reality which did not coincide with what was really the aim of the contract'.

What the account-holders intended was to 'invest in products which were profitable, but secure'.

“They were not seeking an investment with any risk element, and if they signed for the preferential shares, it was in light of the information offered by Deutsche Bank – and the product they were sold was much more complex than it initially appeared, meaning it ended up with harmful results [loss of capital] which were not only not wished for, but which the customer could not even imagine the possibility of facing,” said the verdict.

So far, this is the highest payout ordered of a bank through mis-selling of preferential shares and with the highest number of collective plaintiffs.

Recently, a former employee of Caja Madrid – one of the two banks, along with Bancaja, which was bought out by the State and merged to become Bankia – revealed publicly that he had been fired for refusing to continue selling preferential shares to customers disguised as harmless deposit accounts.