Deutsche Bank AG (DB) has approached the European Commission and the Swiss authorities offering to co-operate on investigations into alleged fixing of key global interest rate Libor in return for leniency, according to an article published on Der Spiegel's website Sunday.
Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the article Sunday.
Spiegel says Deutsche applied for "Kronzeugenregelung," or status as a cooperating witness, in 2011 and recently obtained it.
"There's nervousness at Deutsche Bank," the article quotes an unnamed person close to the bank as saying.
Libor, the London interbank offered rate, is at the center of an international banking scandal as authorities on both sides of the Atlantic investigate claims a number of major banks were involved in manipulating it.
According to Spiegel, Deutsche Bank is suspected, along with about 20 other financial institutions, of having influenced the rate between 2005 and 2011.
Magazine website: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/skandal-um-libor-deutsche-bank-beantragt-kronzeugenregelung-a-844446.html