At Deutsche Bank, a fundamental restructuring is underway. For just over a week, there have been speculations in media reports about the reduction of 15,000 to 20,000 full-time jobs across the Group – so that one in five of the last 91,500 jobs could make it. Cuts are expected especially in investment banking. After the bank announced on Friday the separation of investment bank chief Garth Ritchie, more decisions could still fall today.
CEO Christian Sewing had announced at the Annual General Meeting in May „hard cuts“ in Germany’s largest financial institution. The former retail client, who has been leading the bank since April 2018, left no doubt that the cutbacks would focus on the capital markets business. Investment banking traditionally includes the trading of securities and foreign exchange of all kinds, as well as the supervision of corporate takeovers, mergers and IPOs.
From the gold donkey to the debtor
In the years before the financial crisis of 2007/2008 investment banking was at times a goldmine for Deutsche Bank. The division contributed the lion’s share to the consolidated profit. But the crisis revealed the downsides of many businesses: For years, the DAX group had to deal with it after lawsuits and paid several billion in fines. Over the past two quarters, the investment bank has been in the red.
The current head of the division, Britche Ritchie, will leave Deutsche Bank „by mutual agreement“ on 31 July. Sewing makes the leadership of the recently weakening corporate and investment bank a top priority.
