Foreign news: Deutsche Bank CEO on trial, SEC quizzing BoA, Barclays boosts forex provisions

Deutsche Bank co-CEO Juergen Fitschen and four others went on trial on Tuesday, accused of giving misleading evidence to avoid damages in connection with the 2002 collapse of the Kirch media empire. Reuters reports Fitschen has vowed to fight the criminal allegations, which follow a 12-year civil suit brought by heirs of late media magnate Leo Kirch. The case could prove a further distraction for the bank as it presses ahead with a strategic downsizing.
Bank of America is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations the bank broke rules designed to safeguard client accounts, potentially putting retail-brokerage funds at risk in order to generate more profits, reports the Wall Street Journal. For at least three years the bank used large, complex trades and loans to save tens of millions of dollars a year in funding costs and to free up billions of dollars in cash and other liquid assets for trading that BOA otherwise would have needed to keep segregated.
UK major Barclays has put aside a further Â£800 million to cover the cost of investigations into manipulation of foreign exchange markets, the Financial Times reports, adding that this offsets a rebound in its investment bank and cuts its quarterly net profits by more than half. The move takes the total provisions taken by Barclays primarily for forex investigations and litigation to slightly more than Â£2 billion.