Financial Institutions

German fintechs are increasingly attracting the interest of venture capitalists again. Now, Berlin-based Solaris is on the verge of a new financial injection with a financing round soon, raising a mid-double-digit million amount - about €50 to 60 million from existing investors.

It is probably the most significant compensation sum ever paid by a bank in the USA for sexual abuse: Deutsche Bank pays 75 million dollars to a woman who Jeffrey Epstein had abused. She accused the bank of ignoring evidence of his machinations to continue doing business with him.

After years of struggling against cash outflows and another year of weak business figures, the Swiss fund company GAM is losing its independence. The British Liontrust Asset Management will take it over. Liontrust is offering 107 million francs in its shares for GAM, the two companies said Thursday. GAM's board of directors voted in favour of the transaction.

Michael Ilgner, Deutsche Bank's head of human resources, had bought bonds from his employer shortly before the publication of the quarterly balance sheet. This is against the bank's rules. The institute is investigating the matter.

The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) is in the process of seizing and selling the First Republic, a U.S. bank caught in the post-FTX banking crisis. It was expected that FDIC announced the bail-out results before the opening of the Asian stock exchanges on Monday. However, no announcement has been made yet.

Thanks to a partnership with Switzerland's Sygnum Bank, PostFinance is now offering its 2.5 million customers the ability to buy, store and sell Bitcoin and Ether.

In Switzerland, up to 11,000 employees could be affected by the UBS takeover of Credit Suisse. UBS Group plans to cut its workforce by between 20% and 30%, slashing as many as 36,000 jobs worldwide, Swiss newspaper Sonntagszeitung reported, citing a senior manager at UBS.

Shares of Jack Dorsey's Fintech Block plunged about 18% this week after short-seller Hindenburg Research accused the company of systematically facilitating fraud and violate regulatory rules.

After the laboriously negotiated takeover of the ailing Credit Suisse by the Swiss central bank UBS, unrest continues to reign in the financial markets. The Deutsche Bank share is one of the biggest losers on the DAX ahead of the weekend. However, the recent slump in the share price offers no cause for concern for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.