Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

The presiding judge at the Munich court, Peter Noll, has allowed the case to go forward, Der Spiegel said, citing unnamed sources.

A spokeswoman for the Munich court said that based on current information, she could not confirm that the case had been formally admitted for trial.

In Germany, a formal declaration that a case has gone to trial tends to follow only after the lawyers of the accused have been informed.

Munich prosecutors have been investigating whether Fitschen and former executives gave misleading evidence during a civil court case brought by the heirs of Leo Kirch, the deceased media magnate who had sued Deutsche Bank.

Munich prosecutors launched a separate criminal investigation in November into whether Fitschen gave misleading evidence at the Kirch trial.

(Reporting by Edward Taylor and Joern Poltz; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)