By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank will pay a $9.5 million penalty to settle civil charges that it failed to properly safeguard material non-public information generated by its research analysts and publishing an improper research report, U.S. regulators said Wednesday.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said Deutsche Bank's (DE:DBKGn) securities unit encouraged its equity research analysts to communicate with customers and its own traders, and failed to implement policies to prevent the analysts from disclosing non-public reports on trading recommendations and changes in estimates.
The bank settled the case without admitting or denying the charges. In a statement, Deutsche spokeswoman Amanda Williams said the bank "takes its research analyst communications and conduct very seriously."
She added that the bank has a robust policy in place and has taken steps to correct issues identified by the SEC.
The SEC also charged the bank for issuing a research report about retailer Big Lots (N:BIG) urging investors to buy stock, even though the analyst who prepared it privately told certain bank employees the stock should have downgraded.
