Deutsche Bank’s head of financial crime and anti-money laundering is stepping down just six months after he was hired to help improve systems and controls even as the bank faced charges ranging from sanctions breaches to mortgage mis-selling.
Peter Hazlewood, who has previously worked at JPMorgan, Standard Chartered and HSBC, will “likely” move to another role at Deutsche, a person with knowledge of the situation said.
The person added that Mr Hazlewood’s successor will be appointed by the end of January.
The bank declined to comment. Mr Hazlewood did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Deutsche, which is in the midst of a major restructuring under chief executive John Cryan, has been hit by a number of financial crime and anti-money laundering scandals, most notably ongoing investigations into its Russian arm, alleged US sanctions breaches in Iran and suspected manipulation of foreign exchange rates.
The bank managed to put one of its biggest litigation issues behind it just before Christmas, however, when it agreed a $7.2bn settlement with the US Department of Justice over the way it sold securitised US mortgages in the run-up to the financial crisis.
“The speed of his departure and the comments about his approach suggest it was literally a clash of styles,” said Chris Wheeler, London-based analyst at Atlantic Equities.
“Remember how Standard Chartered and HSBC were hit hard by money laundering fines in the US re Iran and Mexico . . . that would have bred a very strict approach, which maybe was beyond what is normally required.”
Announcing his appointment in July, Deutsche described Frankfurt-based Mr Hazlewood as “an experienced career financial crime professional” who would bring “diverse geographic experience” to the German bank.
“Robust and effective controls are essential to our business practice. Compliance and AFC [anti-financial crime] are key functions to ensure that we manage our business activities to high standards at all times,” said Deutsche’s chief regulator officer Sylvie Matherat, who Mr Hazlewood reported to.
Mr Hazlewood has worked in banking for 16 years, first as JPMorgan’s regional head of anti-money laundering, investigations and security for the Asia Pacific region, then at Singapore’s DBS Bank, Standard Chartered and HSBC.
Before his career in banking, he spent eight years at the Royal Hong Kong Police service, finishing up as a Detective Senior Inspector. Mr Hazlewood replaced Ulrich Göres, who left the bank at the end of January 2016.
