Deutsche Bank apologises for legal problems in newspaper ads

Deutsche Bank has released ads in newspapers apologising for its legal problems that have led to its second consecutive annual loss.

Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest lender took out full-page ads in 10 German national newspapers over the weekend, in which it admitted its past conduct.

Indeed, its conduct had also soiled its reputation. It reported a €1.2-billion loss for 2016. The loss was exacerbated by a €1.6-billion legal charge it took in the last quarter of the year.

Deutsche Bank has considered sale of stock to shore up capital after the loss, which was also hinted by CFO Marcus Schenck.

John Cryan, the bank's British leader continued to manage a number of regulatory investigations into the company's operations since he became co-CEO a year and a half ago and CEO last year.

Only last week, Deutsche was fined €500 million by the UK and US, over lax anti-money laundering controls at the lender.

Cryan, who replaced Anshu Jain as co-CEO in 2015 and became sole CEO last year, had been seeking to re-build trust in the lender and had settled some of the bank's largest legal matters over the past two months. He was also adding staff to prevent financial crime.

Amid rising concern over the lender's financial strength, several wealthy and institutional clients had taken their business elsewhere in the fourth quarter.

According to commentators, such paid-for apologies were rare.

The German carmaker Volkswagen AG had in a similar move in 2015 apologised for cheating in emissions tests.

Last year, Wells Fargo & Co ran ads in newspapers and on TV in the US, after authorities said branch workers might have opened over 2 million unauthorised deposit accounts and credit cards over half a decade.