INDEX / DIRECTORY / DEUTSCHE BANK

Deutsche Bank

Banking 49 CITED SOURCES UPDATED 2026-09-22 METHOD V6.5
BDS-1000 Score 754 /1000 B Tier B - Severe
Military ↗ 0.00 Digital ↗ 0.00 Economic ↗ 8.80 Political ↗ 3.70
OWNERSHIP TREE 13 brands and group businesses View all

OpenIntel is reader-funded - no sponsors, no institutional money. Support OpenIntel →

Key Findings

  • Economic: Deutsche Bank was a joint bookrunner for State of Israel US$8.0 billion sovereign-bond offering in March 2024 and US$5.0 billion offering in February 2025; the latter transaction allocated 20% to each of five bookrunners.1, 2
  • Political: The bank maintains documented Israeli capital-markets activity, including a Tel Aviv contact and primary-dealer activity in Israeli nominal and inflation-linked bonds.3, 4
  • Political: Deutsche Bank was one of five German companies reported to have donated €1 million each to Yad Vashem’s Moshal Shoah Legacy Campus, inaugurated in Jerusalem in July 2024.5
  • Not found: No public evidence identified in the reviewed materials of Deutsche Bank defence contracting, military supply, Israeli state-security technology provision, Project Nimbus participation, or operations in Israeli settlements.6, 7, 8

Target Profile

FieldDetail
Company NameDeutsche Bank AG
JurisdictionGermany; a German-law stock corporation.9
HeadquartersTaunusanlage 12, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.9
SectorBanking and financial services.
OwnershipPublicly held. Deutsche Bank reports no controlling shareholder; disclosed voting-rights notifications include BlackRock Inc. (8.14%), Paramount Service Holding Ltd. S.à r.l. (4.91%), and Amundi S.A. (3.03%).10
Key Executives / GovernanceChristian Sewing, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board; Fabrizio Campelli, Deputy Chairman and President; Alexander Wynaendts, Chair of the Supervisory Board.11, 12
Israeli-Nexus SummaryDocumented nexus consists principally of Israeli sovereign-bond bookrunning and primary-dealer activity, Tel Aviv financial-services entities and contacts, and a documented Yad Vashem campus donation; no verified military, security-technology, or settlement operation was identified.

Key Facts:

Executive Summary

Deutsche Bank is a German banking group with a documented financial-services presence in Israel. The evidence reviewed establishes Tel Aviv-domiciled Group entities, a Tel Aviv capital-markets contact, and continuing Israeli-market activity. A 2026 recruitment notice describes Deutsche Bank as a primary dealer in Israeli nominal and inflation-linked bonds, serving pension funds, asset managers, insurers, hedge funds, and large corporate accounts.3, 4 The materials do not establish the detailed legal relationship between all current Tel Aviv page labels and the Annual Report’s named subsidiary.13, 3, 14

The strongest documented economic vector is sovereign capital-markets activity. Deutsche Bank was one of four joint bookrunners in Israel’s US$8.0 billion March 2024 external sovereign-bond offering, with a 25% role, and one of five joint bookrunners in the US$5.0 billion February 2025 offering, with a 20% allocation.1, 2 The 2025 prospectus says underwriters severally agreed to purchase the bonds subject to the underwriting agreement’s conditions. This establishes underwriting, not that Deutsche Bank retained bonds as investment holdings or that proceeds were directed to a particular use.15

The strongest political and institutional evidence is mixed in character. Deutsche Bank was among five German corporate supporters of Yad Vashem’s Moshal Shoah Legacy Campus, each reported to have donated €1 million; the project was inaugurated in Jerusalem on 8 July 2024.5 The reviewed material describes historical-memory and educational support, not a commercial contract with the Israeli state, military, settlement enterprise, or a state public-relations campaign.5 Deutsche Bank’s public position reproduced by PAX states that it applies enhanced due diligence to defence-sector transactions and does not conduct business with the military or security sector of countries it considers to be in conflict, while declining to discuss actual or prospective client relationships.16

Claims of military or digital complicity were not substantiated by the reviewed evidence. No public evidence identified links Deutsche Bank to Israeli defence procurement, weapons production, military logistics, Israeli security-sector technology contracts, Project Nimbus, Israeli data centres, or settlement operations.6, 7, 8 Secondary reporting on finance to selected international arms producers and settlement-linked companies is retained as qualified context only: it does not establish individual deal documents, dedicated finance for Israeli transfers, or finance directed to settlements.16, 17

Under the fixed, human-vetted V6.5 assessment, Deutsche Bank receives a BRS of 754, placing it in Tier B (Severe Complicity). That result is driven by the verified sovereign-underwriting and Israeli-market nexus reflected in Economic, together with the documented political/institutional links reflected in Political. It does not represent a finding of military contracting, surveillance deployment, or settlement operations.

Timeline of Relevant Events

DateEvent
1 July 2004Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange approved Deutsche Securities Israel, described as a Deutsche Bank AG subsidiary, as an exchange member with direct trading access. The source does not establish that membership remains current.18
2010A contemporaneous report stated that Deutsche Bank had sold all Elbit Systems shares. It is not a Deutsche Bank written divestment policy and does not establish current holdings or an ongoing relationship.19
March 2018Then-Chief Executive John Cryan reportedly said Deutsche Bank would establish a technology centre in Israel; the available report did not specify scope, location, staffing, or opening date.20
October 2021SeaLights announced Deutsche Bank’s participation in its US$30 million Series B financing. Available sources verify the investment but not Deutsche Bank’s amount, stake, governance rights, internal deployment, or present status.21, 22
5 March 2024Deutsche Bank AG was a 25% joint bookrunner for Israel’s US$8.0 billion sovereign-bond offering.1
8 July 2024Yad Vashem’s Moshal Shoah Legacy Campus was inaugurated in Jerusalem; a Friends of Yad Vashem announcement reported €1 million contributions from each of five German corporate members, including Deutsche Bank.5
2024Deutsche Bank’s country-by-country reporting included Israel, confirming reportable activity attributed to Israel during that reporting year.23
11 February 2025Deutsche Bank AG was named one of five joint bookrunners for Israel’s US$5.0 billion external sovereign-bond offering.2
11 June 2025The European Investment Bank signed a €500 million intermediary facility with Deutsche Bank for security- and defence-sector companies and public-sector entities within EU countries. The record does not establish Israel-related financing under the facility.24
2025Deutsche Bank reported 15 employees in Israel and listed Deutsche Securities Israel Ltd., Tel Aviv, as a wholly owned financial-institution subsidiary.13
2026A Deutsche Bank Israel-based job posting described the bank as a primary dealer in Israeli nominal and inflation-linked bonds.4

Corporate Overview

Deutsche Bank AG is the German parent of Deutsche Bank Group. The Group comprises Deutsche Bank AG and consolidated subsidiaries, and its regulatory disclosures state that separately incorporated entities are generally regulated in their respective jurisdictions of incorporation.9, 25 Material subsidiaries identified in the 2025 Form 20-F include DB USA Corporation, Deutsche Bank Americas Holding Corporation, DB U.S. Financial Markets Holding Corporation, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A., DB Beteiligungs-Holding GmbH, and DWS Group GmbH & Co. KGaA.9

The reviewed records identify a wholly owned Tel Aviv financial-institution subsidiary, Deutsche Securities Israel Ltd., and identify Deutsche Global Markets Limited as a wholly owned Tel Aviv-domiciled ancillary-services undertaking in the FY2024 shareholdings disclosure.13, 26 Deutsche Bank’s contact page identifies Deutsche Bank Capital Markets and Investments Ltd. at 46 Rothschild Boulevard, 21st Floor, Tel Aviv; a Wealth Management page identifies Deutsche Bank Global Markets Ltd. at the same address.3, 14

The record does not reconcile these names with the Annual Report’s Deutsche Securities Israel Ltd. disclosure. It therefore does not establish whether they are separate legal entities, former names, trade names, or inconsistent page labels.13, 3, 14 No public evidence identified of an Israeli founding, headquarters, tax residence, controlling Israeli ownership, Israeli acquisition price, or Israeli acquisition date for the documented entities.9, 26

Domain Summaries

Military: Military

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified in the reviewed materials of Deutsche Bank defence contracting, Israeli military procurement, weapons manufacture, munitions integration, military logistics, defence-prime supply-chain participation, or military export licensing involving Deutsche Bank AG, its significant subsidiaries, or the identified Israeli entity.6, 25, 3

The Israeli recruitment material describes financial-market clients rather than military customers. It identifies pension funds, asset managers, insurers, hedge funds, and large corporates as the relevant client base.4

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The strongest evidence-based defence is the absence of a verified direct military nexus in the reviewed primary corporate, entity, and regulatory materials. Deutsche Bank is documented as a banking group, not as a manufacturer, exporter, or operator of weapons, dual-use equipment, military infrastructure, or base-support services.6, 9

PAX reports group-level relationships involving selected arms producers, including loans, underwriting, and an August 2023 holdings snapshot. However, the report does not provide individual deal documents or establish that finance was dedicated to Israeli transfers, specific Israeli arms deliveries, or military operations.16 A 2010 report also stated that Deutsche Bank sold all Elbit Systems shares; this does not prove a current holding status, but it is material exculpatory context against treating historic exposure as continuing ownership.19

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Digital: Digital

Mechanism of Involvement

Deutsche Bank has a documented multi-year Google Cloud partnership, including cloud infrastructure, data analytics, AI, lending, retail-interface, and Autobahn-platform exploration. The bank stated in 2024 that it had decided to migrate a large number of applications and storage systems to Google Cloud, and described the partnership as continuing in July 2026.27, 28, 29

SeaLights announced Deutsche Bank’s participation in a Series B financing round, and an Israeli law firm stated that it represented Deutsche Bank AG in that investment in SeaLights Technologies Ltd.21, 22 The records establish an investment, not product deployment or a security-sector use case.

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No public evidence identified of Deutsche Bank using Israeli-origin surveillance, biometrics, predictive-policing, offensive cyber, or intelligence technology. No public evidence identified of a technology contract with the Israeli Ministry of Defence, Israel Defense Forces, intelligence agencies, or another Israeli state-security body.7

The reviewed Google Cloud disclosures do not establish that Deutsche Bank data are stored, routed, processed, or legally accessible in Israel. No Israel-specific data-residency commitment, Israeli data centre, Project Nimbus participation, or Israeli-government cloud role was identified.27, 28 The 2018 Israeli technology-centre statement was a reported proposal whose opening, scope, and outcome were not confirmed in later reviewed material.20

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Economic: Economic

Mechanism of Involvement

The principal verified economic nexus is Israeli sovereign-bond underwriting. Deutsche Bank AG was a 25% joint bookrunner for the US$8.0 billion March 2024 offering and one of five bookrunners, allocated 20%, for the US$5.0 billion February 2025 offering.1, 2 The 2025 offering included US$2.5 billion of 5.375% bonds due 2030 and US$2.5 billion of 5.625% bonds due 2035, with settlement scheduled for 19 February 2025.2

Deutsche Bank also has documented market activity through Tel Aviv entities and contacts. Its Israeli job notice describes primary-dealer activity in Israeli nominal and inflation-linked bonds, and the Israeli Finance Ministry ranked “Deutsche Bank” in primary and secondary government-bond markets in Q1–Q3 2024 and Q4 2025. These rankings show market position, not transaction amounts, contracting entity, fees, allocation of proceeds, or activity after 31 December 2025.4, 30

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Bookrunning establishes underwriting activity; it does not by itself establish long-term investment holdings, the retention of offered bonds, or a designated use of sovereign proceeds.2, 15 The prospectus allows that underwriting-group members may have provided or may provide banking and advisory services to Israel, but it does not identify the specific services, transactions, or use of proceeds.15

The Don’t Buy into Occupation IV figures are secondary-report leads. Its aggregate loans, underwriting, shares, and bonds figures concern a defined set of companies and expressly caution that group-level financial relationships do not mean all capital reached settlement activities. The audit did not independently verify a particular Deutsche Bank transaction with a named company or finance directed to settlements.17 No public evidence identified of direct lending or trade-finance facilities to Elbit Systems, another Israeli defence prime, or a specific OHCHR-listed company.17, 31

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Political: Political

Mechanism of Involvement

Deutsche Bank’s documented political/institutional nexus includes its contribution to Yad Vashem’s Moshal Shoah Legacy Campus. The cited materials identify a €1 million donation as part of a five-company German corporate support group and state that the completed campus was inaugurated in Jerusalem on 8 July 2024.5

The bank also maintains a public Israel market presence. Its Wealth Management materials state that the Israeli Securities Authority permitted Deutsche Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. to prospect for eligible investors in Israel, subject to disclosures, and that other Group entities may also prospect for Israeli clients.32 Israeli consular pages direct users to Deutsche Bank accounts for service-fee payments; these pages establish account use, not the underlying commercial relationship or a broader government-finance mandate.33, 34

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The Yad Vashem records describe historical-memory and education support, not a commercial contract with Israel, the military, settlements, or a public-relations campaign. They do not disclose payment date, donation instrument, conditions, recipient arrangement, additional amount, or continuing support following completion of the campus project.5

No public evidence identified of occupied-territory branches, settlement operations, settlement contracts, Israel/Palestine-specific lobbying, anti-BDS advocacy, IDF/FIDF/JNF donations, conflict-period logistical support, or free services for Israeli state or military bodies.8, 13, 30 Document review found no Deutsche Bank mention in the 2023 and 2025 OHCHR settlement-business database updates or the UN Special Rapporteur report; these are document-scoped findings and do not resolve indirect exposure, unlisted activity, client relationships, or Group-entity relationships.35, 36, 37

Deutsche Bank’s response reproduced by PAX states that the bank uses enhanced due diligence for defence-sector transactions and does not conduct business with the military or security sector of countries it considers to be in conflict. The statement is a policy position, not an independently audited account of all relationships.16

Named Entities and Evidence Map

BDS-1000 Score

Method: V6.5.

DomainIMPV-Domain Score
Military0.000.000.000.00
Digital0.000.000.000.00
Economic8.807.409.008.80
Political3.707.409.003.70

V_MAX is driven by Economic, reflecting verified Israeli sovereign-bond bookrunning and sustained documented Israeli capital-markets activity. Political reflects the institutional and market-presence record, while Military and Digital remain zero because the reviewed evidence did not verify military or digital-security involvement. This is a scale-free, evidence-only, human-vetted assessment; it does not infer unverified relationships from corporate presence or secondary-report aggregates.

Methodology Note

Footnotes

  1. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/52749/000110465924033345/tm248330d1_ex99-j.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/52749/000110465925011566/tm255845d3_fwp.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  3. https://country.db.com/global/contacts/israel?kid=israel.redirect-en.shortcut&language_id=1 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  4. https://db.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/DBWebsite/job/Israel-Salesperson_R0436765 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  5. https://www.yad-vashem.de/post/yad-vashem-er%C3%B6ffnet-mit-dem-moshal-shoah-legacy-campus-neues-erinnerungszentrum-in-jerusalem ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  6. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1159508/000115950826000017/db-20251231.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  7. https://www.db.com/news/detail/20201204-deutsche-bank-and-google-cloud-sign-pioneering-cloud-and-innovation-partnership ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/60/19 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  9. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1159508/000115950826000017/db-20251231.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  10. https://investor-relations.db.com/share/shareholder-structure ↩

  11. https://www.db.com/who-we-are/boards-and-committees/management-board ↩

  12. https://investorrelations.db.com/corporate-governance/organizational-structure/supervisory-board ↩

  13. https://investor-relations.db.com/files/documents/other-presentations-and-events/2025/Annual-Report-2025.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  14. https://wealth.db.com/de/locations/europe-middle-east-and-africa/israel.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  15. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/52749/000110465925011201/tm255845-1_424b5.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  16. https://paxforpeace.nl/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/The-Companies-Arming-Israel-and-Their-Financiers-June-2024.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  17. https://dontbuyintooccupation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/2024_DBIO-IV-report.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  18. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-812042 ↩

  19. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-1000562724 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  20. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0%2C7340%2CL-3734726%2C00.html ↩ ↩2

  21. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sealights-announces-30-million-series-b-to-revolutionize-software-quality-at-scale-301402666.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  22. https://www.gornitzky.com/our-firm-represented-deutsche-bank-ag-global-in-its-investment-in-the-israeli-company-sealights-technologies-ltd/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  23. https://investorrelations.db.com/files/documents/annual-reports/2024/Annual-Report-2024.pdf?language_id=1 ↩

  24. https://www.eib.org/en/projects/all/20250185 ↩

  25. https://www.db.com/legal-resources/corporate-and-regulatory-disclosures/index ↩ ↩2

  26. https://geschaeftsbericht.deutsche-bank.de/files/documents/annual-reports/2024/Shareholdings-2024.pdf?language_id=1 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  27. https://www.db.com/news/detail/20201204-deutsche-bank-and-google-cloud-sign-pioneering-cloud-and-innovation-partnership ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  28. https://annualreport.deutsche-bank.com/files/documents/registration-documents/3rd-Supplement-Registration-Document-2023.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  29. https://www.db.com/news/detail/20260702-how-do-you-modernise-the-tech-stack-of-a-150-year-old-bank?language_id=1 ↩

  30. https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/dynamiccollectorresultitem/pd-ranking-2024/en/files-eng_Primary-Dealers-Ranking_RankingPDs2024-3.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  31. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2023/06/update-database-business-enterprises-relation-occupied-palestinian ↩

  32. https://wealth.db.com/en/articles/eligible-investors.html ↩ ↩2

  33. https://embassies.gov.il/berlin/de/contacts ↩ ↩2

  34. https://embassies.gov.il/munich/en/node/3857 ↩ ↩2

  35. https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/53/25 ↩

  36. https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/59/23 ↩

  37. https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/60/19 ↩