The culling of 18,000 jobs at Deutsche Bank has started only hours after the lender unveiled its most radical strategic overhaul in two decades, with whole teams of equity traders in Europe, the US and Asia being dismissed on Monday morning.
Drawing a line under a 20-year attempt to break into the top ranks of Wall Street, chief executive Christian Sewing on Sunday unveiled plans to shut Deutsche’s lossmaking equities trading business and shrink its bond and rates trading operations significantly. Shares in Deutsche were down 4.5 per cent at €6.85 on Monday.
Mr Sewing told journalists on a call on Monday morning that the job cuts “have been the most difficult and painful part of our decision making” as “people and their fates are very important to us”, adding that the bank needs to be honest with itself and “say where we are strong and where we are not”.