The long-running saga of legal disputes initiated by the late media mogul Leo Kirch and his associates looks set to continue: Deutsche Bank has issued a terse statement to the effect that it has “thoroughly reviewed” a proposal for a settlement and that “based on this review, which included the consideration of internal and external legal advice, the board decided without dissent not to accept the settlement proposal.”

The existence of such settlement talks was confirmed by a statement from Deutsche late last month.

Kirch, who died last year, believed that former Deutsche chief executive Rolf Breuer brought about the Kirch Group’s collapse by doubting its creditworthiness in a 2002 television interview and had been seeking damages around €2.6 billion (about $3.5 billion). Media reports of the settlement under discussion suggest a figure of €800 million was in the air.