No End in Sight for Deutsche Bank Libor Probe

There is no end in sight to investigations into the Libor benchmark rate scandal at Deutsche Bank, two sources familiar with the probe said on Monday, rejecting a report saying senior managers had received an "all-clear" signal.

The comments come after German magazine WirstschaftWoche reported at the weekend that Deutsche Bank's internal investigation had ended and had found no misconduct by senior managers, citing high-placed sources at the bank.

Two sources close to the matter said it was too early to issue any all-clear signal as investigations both internally at the bank and by external investigators remained in full swing.

"The Libor investigation at Deutsche Bank is still running," said one regulatory source. "There is no end in sight at the moment. It could go on for months - there is no concrete schedule."

Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the report and referred to a previous statement saying it was cooperating with authorities as it pursued its own internal probe.

"As per the current status of investigations, we can say that no current or former member of the Management Board had any inappropriate involvement in the interbank offered rates matters under review," a spokesman for the bank said.

A spokesman at German financial regulator Bafin declined to comment.

Regulators are looking into more than a dozen banks and brokerages over allegations they manipulated benchmark interest rates such as Libor and Euribor, which are used to price trillions of dollars of financial products from derivatives to mortgages and credit card loans.

Germany's largest lender is facing an array of investigations into the conduct of its employees. A jump in litigation costs was partly responsible for weak earnings in 2013 and so far this year, heaping pressure on co-Chief Executives Anshu Jain and Juergen Fitschen.

Deutsche Bank has already had to pay over 5 billion euros ($6.9 billion) over the past two years for settlements and fines stemming mostly from the financial crisis. The bank has set aside another 1.8 billion euros in anticipation of more pain this year.

(Reporting by Kathrin Jones and Thomas Atkins; Editing by Mark Potter)