Deutsche Bank staff, Korean broker indicted

Four Deutsche Bank employees and its South Korean brokerage were indicted for causing a rout in stocks, the lender's latest setback in the Asian nation after a six-month trading ban over the incident. The Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office decided to charge the German bank's staff and Deutsche Securities Korea on Friday, the lender said in an e-mailed statement Sunday. Repeated calls to the South Korean prosecutor's office outside business hours weren't answered. The Financial Services Commission said in February that five of the Frankfurt-based lender's employees conspired to manipulate the market, causing the Kospi index to plunge in the last 10 minutes of trading on November 11, erasing $27 billion (Dh99 billion) of market value. Deutsche Bank was banned from trading shares and derivatives for its own account for six months from April 1, the heaviest penalty imposed on any securities company in Korea.