Deutsche Bank gave an unusually explicit denial that it knew of any potential charges from the US Securities and Exchange Commission as it tried to distance itself from fears that it could find itself in a similar position to Goldman Sachs, which faces fraud allegations.

Stefan Krause, chief financial officer, said Germany's largest bank had not received a so-called Wells Notice – a notification from the SEC, indicating evidence to support civil charges. The rare public acknowledgement of the issue demonstrates the bank's attempts to soothe investor concerns after the US regulator levelled charges this month at Goldman. The charges involve a so-called synthetic collateralised debt obligation sold to IKB, a German bank that was a voracious buyer of CDOs and similar securities and had dealings with other investment banks including Deutsche.

“To clearly state it here, we have done our internal review of our transactions . . . we do not see that we have any similar situation to the one that is being discussed,” said Mr Krause, referring to the SEC case against Goldman, in response to a question from an analyst during a conference call.