Frankfurt Julia and Stefan Fischer actually wanted to move into their new single-family home in the Brück district of Cologne with their three-year-old daughter last Monday. But nothing came of it.
The reason: The family and the sellers of the house have been waiting in vain for months for a document from the Deutsche Bank subsidiary DSL that they need to complete the agreed house purchase.
Instead of moving into their new, 230 square meter house, the Fischers have now temporarily moved in with Stefan Fischer’s mother. There the three of them sleep in his old children’s room. “The last few weeks have been dramatic for us as a family,” says Julia Fischer. “I had sleepless nights and could have cried all day. Every second was about this one topic.”
The fate of the Fischers, who in reality have different names and wish to remain anonymous, is not an isolated case. Numerous people have been complaining to consumer advocates and the financial regulator Bafin for months about serious problems with DSL Bank.
The problem is triggered by a major IT change at Deutsche Bank. As a result, the subsidiary Postbank has also been experiencing massive problems for months.
Financial supervision threatens with consequences
The financial regulator Bafin sharply reprimanded Deutsche Bank last week because of the problems at Postbank. Now the authority is also criticizing the deficits in DSL in clear terms and threatening consequences.
“Bafin has already asked Deutsche Bank AG to correct the existing deficiencies at DSL Bank,” an authority spokesman told Handelsblatt. “Since Bafin examines measures against Deutsche Bank when appropriate, this also includes the DSL problem.”
If the situation does not improve, a variety of sanctions are conceivable. Bafin could, for example, restrict DSL Bank’s business or appoint a special representative to monitor the elimination of deficiencies. This would be a further setback for Deutsche Bank boss Christian Sewing, who is already under pressure because of the Postbank problems.
CEO Christian Sewing clearly sees himself on the right path.
(Photo: Reuters)
The institute explained that DSL is currently recording an increased volume of inquiries and orders for construction financing in disbursement and loan follow-up as a result of the move to Deutsche Bank’s IT systems. “In some cases, this leads to an extension of the processing time for payouts and inquiries about construction financing that has already been completed.”
Deutsche Bank takes every inquiry or complaint very seriously. “We apologize to affected customers for any inconvenience caused.”
“Construction is at a standstill, craftsmen are waiting for their money”
Bafin explained that it had been registering “an increasing number of complaints about DSL Bank” since July. One focus is “delays in the processing of payment requests for real estate financing”.
Some people who have taken out building financing with DSL do not receive the money as agreed. This means that property developers or craftsmen, for example, cannot be paid.
“Construction is now really starting for us and we are almost immediately threatened with a halt to construction because we can neither pay the bills nor provide the required financing confirmation,” complains a DSL customer on the financial portal Finanzfluss. “Our knees are shaking as to what to do next.”
The high financing costs have an immediate impact.
(Photo: dpa)
On the Finanztip portal, a user named Kristin writes that she has been waiting for her construction advance to be paid out since the beginning of August. “Everything on the construction site is at a standstill, craftsmen are waiting for their money.” By Tuesday evening, 90 percent of 184 reviews about DSL Bank were negative on Finanztip.de, while on Finanzfluss it was 68 percent of 221 reviews.
In addition to problems with payouts, according to Bafin, there are also complaints about the lack of release of securities. “Borrowers who have sold their property unencumbered do not receive the necessary authorization to delete the registered mortgages,” explained the spokesman.
Some home purchases are in jeopardy
The Fischer family is such a case. She had actually arranged all the formalities of the purchase at a notary appointment in July. In order to be able to pay the purchase price and complete the sale, all that was missing was the DSL’s deletion approval.
However, the seller waited in vain for this for months. He therefore filed a complaint with Bafin and also contacted the Handelsblatt. Without the extinguishing permit, the sale cannot be completed and the house cannot be handed over, he said. In addition, he and his wife still have to pay interest on a loan that they both actually wanted to repay by selling the house.
The seller says he was happy with the DSL Bank for a long time. There were short communication channels and quick response times. But that has changed suddenly since the summer. “There are no longer known contacts,” he complains. “You will be intercepted and put off by the call center if you have that much patience and wait.”
>> Read here: Consumer advocates are pushing for uncomplicated compensation for Postbank customers
He is not alone with his complaints. “The lack of accessibility of the institute” is the subject of many complaints to Bafin, explained the financial supervisory authority. Among other things, customer inquiries about loan repayment would not be answered.
The Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (VZBV) explained that in the first half of 2023 the number of consumer complaints about DSL Bank was still in the single digits. “In July there was a sudden increase in recorded consumer complaints into the mid double-digit range,” said VZBV speaker Meryem Osanmaz.
“Mostly these are questions about payment delays when buying, selling or building a property where the bank cannot be reached,” reports Osanmaz. In some cases, this put home purchases at risk. “Affected consumers are very concerned about this situation.”
The situation should return to normal by the end of the year at the latest
The “Finanz-Scene” portal recently quoted from a letter in which a branch of DSL Bank gave its own sales partners tips on how to deal with threatened customer lawsuits.
“You can involve us in cases that are particularly explosive (e.g. due date of purchase price or impending construction stop) that fall outside the communicated processing time,” the letter said. However, due to the high volume, prioritization cannot be guaranteed.
Deutsche Bank said it had already taken measures at DSL Bank “to improve the situation and significantly shorten processing times.” The capacities in the processing teams have been significantly increased in the last few weeks and will continue to be increased.
The bank has also made system-technical optimizations. “Relevant processes have been simplified, new software has been put into operation and, as far as possible, simple processes are now increasingly being processed automatically.”
>> Read here: Deutsche Bank shows interest in neobroker Scalable
There is already an improvement as a result of the measures taken. “The processing times for payout requests are continually decreasing and we are confident that the general processing times will have normalized by the end of the year at the latest.”
A solution is now emerging for the Fischer family. After Handelsblatt confronted the bank with the case on Monday, a DSL employee contacted the seller of the house on Tuesday.
The employee promised him that she would now take care of the case as a priority, says the salesperson. The necessary deletion authorization should probably arrive at his notary at the beginning of next week. The bank also stated that it was “also considering a goodwill payment in this matter.”
More: Deutsche Bank is streamlining its construction financing business.