Carsten Kengeter will leave his position as CEO of Deutsche Bourse at the end of the year, a news release said.
Mr. Kengeter made a decision to step down as he remains under an investigation by German authorities for allegedly violating an insider-trading ban. Last month, the Frankfurt-based stock exchange agreed to pay €10.5 million ($12.4 million) to settle accusations that Mr. Kengeter purchased company shares immediately before the exchange launched talks about an all-share merger with the London Stock Exchange Group in December 2015.
While the merger ultimately failed to materialize, the Frankfurt public prosecutor rejected Deutsche Bourse's offer to settle these accusations without taking "the responsibility" for violating the ban.
The supervisory board of the exchange accepted Mr. Kengeter's resignation. The details of the transition will be announced in due course as decisions are made, the exchange said in the news release. A spokesman for Deutsche Boerse could not be reached by press time to comment about Mr. Kengeter's replacement.
"The supervisory board acknowledged and broadly discussed Mr. Kengeter's decision. We understand that the decision he took in the light of the difficult situation was in the best interest of the company. Nevertheless, the supervisory board regrets losing Carsten Kengeter as CEO who laid the foundation for a successful future of Deutsche Bourse in a significant way," said Joachim Faber, chairman of the supervisory board of Deutsche Bourse, in the release.
