An ex-Deutsche Bank credit trader laid off when the lender closed down its bad bank has sued the company in London, saying she was denied hundreds of thousands of pounds in bonuses.
Shikha Gupta, who led a team tasked with unwinding some of the "highest risk assets" held on the bank's own balance sheet, was made redundant in March 2017.
She sued the bank saying she was promised she would be paid "more than ever" only to lose her job when the unit was closed. Instead she received a bonus of just £21,250 ($24,389).
Deutsche Bank wound down its noncore operations unit, known as a bad bank, in 2016. At its peak, the unit held around €100 billion ($99.8 billion) in unwanted assets including mortgage-backed securities. The bank declined to comment.
The trader, who now works for the hedge fund Astra Asset Management, earned £485,000 through 2016, and said her compensation was discussed with executives and then-CEO John Cryan, her lawyers said in a legal filing.
Deutsche Bank has yet to file a response to the claim, but it told the trader that there was "no evidence" that any assurances had been made to Gupta, according to her filing.
She said she asked for the assurances in writing but was told management promises would be honored.
Deutsche Bank faced more than €13.7 billion of pretax losses at the noncore unit after selling assets for less than they were valued by pulling out early from trading contracts.
