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Report: Deutsche Bank CEO mulls appointing new i-bank head

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Report: Deutsche Bank CEO mulls appointing new i-bank head

Deutsche Bank AG CEO Christian Sewing is considering relinquishing his oversight of the lender's investment banking unit and appointing a new head of the division to fully focus on his role, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Sewing took over responsibility of the division following the departure of Garth Ritchie amid the German lender's radical €7.4-billion restructuring. Considerations for such a move is still at an early stage and it is unclear whether the bank has approached any potential candidates, the sources said.

The demands of the investment banking role include Sewing speaking to direct reports almost daily and frequent traveling to stay in touch with staff and clients, the sources added. These duties add to other responsibilities Sewing has assumed, including signing off on any new staff as part of a recent hiring decree, according to the report.

The investment banking unit, Deutsche Bank's biggest source of revenue, has struggled for a long time as revenues plummeted by nearly a third between 2015 and 2018, Bloomberg noted. As part of its latest restructuring, the lender has split up the unit, making the part that offers cash management and trade finance to companies into a separate business dubbed corporate bank, while shifting equities trading and some other areas into a new capital release unit.

The shake-up of the divisions is part of Sewing's aim of decreasing Deutsche Bank's dependence on the often volatile trading income and returning to the lender's origins as a financier of European firms, the report added.

Despite the planned overhaul, Deutsche Bank is yet to win over investors and persuade them that it can achieve its new targets, including increasing core bank revenues to about €25 billion in 2022 from €22.8 billion in 2018 and meeting its return on tangible equity target of 8% in 2022.