Deutsche Bank purges leadership

Germany's largest lender Deutsche Bank has purged its leadership, appointing Briton John Cryan as chief executive to replace Anshu Jain just two weeks after Jain was given more power to reorganise the bank.

Deutsche Bank has struggled to restore an image tarnished by a raft of regulatory and legal problems which include probes into alleged manipulation of benchmark interest rates, mis-selling of derivatives, tax evasion and money laundering. The German lender presented a radical management shake-up on May 21sgt in a last ditch attempt to restore confidence in its management, but some investors demanded more changes. Cryan, 54, has been on the bank’s supervisory board since 2013 and was a former chief financial officer of rival bank UBS .

He will replace co-CEO Jain, who will resign on June 30th, and become the sole CEO when the other co-CEO, Juergen Fitschen, steps down next year, the bank said.

Cryan said there was work to be done. “Our future will be defined by how well we deliver on strategy, impress clients and reduce complexity,” he said in a Deutsche statement announcing his appointment.

The new CEO, who starts on July 1st, was heavily involved in the bank’s new strategy blueprint and is unlikely to make significant changes to it, a senior bank source told Reuters. “The strategy will not be reformulated but there’s obviously room to shape the details of the strategy,” the source said.

Pressure

The strategic plan has been roundly criticised by investors as too little too late. "A lot of detail is still needed on it," said Chris Wheeler, bank analyst at Atlantic Equities in London. "Does the new person say they want to review it or say it's fine ... It's a massive job still to do. It's one of the world's biggest investment banks and Germany's national champion." Analysts at investment bank Jeffries praised Cryan's track record at UBS for "underpromising to over-deliver," saying he would be more likely to reverse Deutsche's ill fortunes without raising new capital or changing strategy yet again. "

Deutsche is transitioning from one of the least credible management teams in investors' minds to one of the most highly regarded," Jefferies wrote in a note to clients. "Market confidence on delivery should clearly increase." Supervisory board chairman Paul Achleitner said the decision by Jain and Fitschen to step down demonstrated their commitment to putting the bank's interests ahead of their own, praising their contributions.

Jain decided that whoever was going to see through the strategy at Deutsche Bank needed to commit to a full five years and he was not able to do this, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters. He first discussed this with co-CEO Fitschen and the pair then agreed that they would both offer their resignation to Achleitner. Achleitner then let the supervisory board know of their decision, the source added.

Jain, an Indian-born British citizen, landed the top spot at Deutsche in 2012 after the investment banking division he ran consistently delivered up to 85 per cent of group profit and frequently outperformed peers. But tougher regulatory requirements and litigation, including a $2.5 billion fine to settle allegations that Deutsche traders rigged benchmark interest rates, took the shine off a division often referred to internally as “Anshu’s army”.

Reuters