Deutsche Bank is preparing to axe almost half its Postbank branches as Germany’s biggest lender embarks on a shake-up of the group’s lacklustre retail operations.
Claudio de Sanctis, Deutsche’s new head of private banking, told the Financial Times that the lender planned to close as many as 250 of Postbank’s 550 remaining branches over the next two years.
Postbank, which serves Germany’s mass retail market, has been a headache for Deutsche since it took full control of the group in 2010. The decision to make deep cuts to the branch network comes as the bank tries to appease angry customers after a botched IT migration disrupted services over the summer.