The Executive Board (Vorstand) and the Supervisory Board (Aufsichtsrat) of Deutsche Börse AG have decided to seek an understanding with the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor. The Company will inform the Public Prosecutor that it would accept the fines announced in relation to the accusations of an alleged violation of the prohibition against insider trading in December 2015 and of an alleged failure to publish an ad hoc announcement in January 2016.

By doing so, the Company agrees to pay two fines in the amount of €5 million and €5.5 million under separate proceedings pursuant to section 30 para. 4 sentence 1 of the German Regulatory Offences Act (Ordnungswidrigkeitengesetz).

The Executive and Supervisory Boards of Deutsche Börse AG thoroughly examined the Public Prosecutor’s hearing letter. The decision to accept the announced fines was taken after all relevant elements were duly considered.

Deutsche Börse AG, however, does not share the Public Prosecutor’s view concerning the accusations raised. The Executive and Supervisory Boards of Deutsche Börse AG instructed external experts to assess the course of events and have carefully analysed the results of this assessment. These analyses did not find any elements indicating a violation of the respective capital markets rules at Deutsche Börse AG.

The decision to nevertheless accept the fines was made for the purpose of protecting the overriding interests of the Company. By doing so, Deutsche Börse AG aims to ensure that the Company can re-focus as quickly as possible on managing the business and leave behind the serious burdens placed on it by the investigation proceedings. The Company assigns highest priority to this.
Deutsche Börse AG assumes that the current investigation proceedings against the Chairman of the Executive Board of Deutsche Börse AG, Carsten Kengeter, will be closed subject to conditions.

Following the closure of the proceedings, the Company will be able to fully re-focus all its energy on implementing the strategy it initiated and on further developing the growth programme “Accelerate”. The objective is to enable the Company to move forward and ensure continued future success for the benefit of its customers, shareholders, employees, and the Frankfurt financial centre.

“We did not take this decision lightly. It has been one of the most difficult decisions I have faced together with my colleagues of Deutsche Börse AG’s Supervisory Board. By making this decision, we have established the prerequisites for the closure of the proceedings. Now, it is incumbent upon the Local Court (Amtsgericht) to rule on this. Subsequently, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – BaFin) and the Hessian exchange supervisory authority will carry out their reliability assessments. Only afterwards will the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Börse AG be addressing the subject of the contract renewal with Carsten Kengeter”, said Joachim Faber, Chairman of Deutsche Börse AG’s Supervisory Board.

Source: Deutsche Börse