FRANKFURT, April 28 (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank said on Friday it is investigating the purchase of the bank's own bonds by a senior executive just days before the lender reported earnings, a move that appeared to flout the bank's own rules designed to prevent insider trading.
A filing earlier this week showed that Michael Ilgner, head of human resources at the German lender, bought 201,000 euros ($221,542) of the bank's bonds on April 18, breaking a ban on purchasing securities eight weeks ahead of earnings.
The bank reported its first-quarter earnings on Thursday.
Ilgner didn't respond to an email seeking comment, and a bank spokesperson said he declined to comment.
Deutsche Bank said in a statement that possible violations of policies on securities transactions by employees are "consistently reviewed and sanctioned as appropriate".
"Irrespective of hierarchy, we are taking these principles very seriously, also in this case. We are holistically looking into this matter," Deutsche said.
"If and to the extent merited, we will take appropriate consequences."
A person familiar with the matter said that there was no evidence that Ilgner had acted in bad faith with the purchase.
The news was first reported by the German blog Finanz-Szene.
($1 = 0.9073 euros)
Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Hans Seidenstuecker and Kirsten Donovan
Source: Reuters