A unit of Deutsche Bank AG conceded that it misled investors and violated securities laws and will pay more than $40 million to settle charges that it misinformed clients about how it routed orders to anonymous trading platforms known as dark pools, Reuters reported on Friday. The bank agreed to pay $37 million to settle charges from federal and New York state regulators, and an additional $3.25 million to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Wall Street's self-funded regulator. In settling with both the New York Attorney General and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Deutsche Bank also admitted that its marketing materials about how it routed orders to various dark pools were misleading. The problems were due to a computer coding error, according to the documents related to that settlement. FINRA's charges against the bank, meanwhile, revolved around "deficient disclosures" by the bank's own dark pool trading platform itself. The bank settled that matter without admitting or denying any wrongdoing.
