Deutsche Bank CEO Mulls Outside Hire to Lead Investment Bank

(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing is considering whether to appoint a new investment banking head after ousting Garth Ritchie during his recent restructuring, people familiar with the matter said.

Sewing -- who had assumed direct oversight after Ritchie’s departure -- thinks it may make sense to relinquish the extra responsibility to focus fully on his CEO role, the people said. No decision has been taken and it’s not clear if any potential candidates have been approached about the role overseeing the bank’s biggest source of revenue, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing internal deliberations.

Deutsche Bank, which earlier declined to comment, said in a statement that it has just appointed a new leadership team which it is committed to. The lender said speculation of Sewing planning to relinquish his oversight of the investment bank is false.

Sewing kicked off Deutsche Bank’s biggest overhaul in recent memory earlier this year after attempts by his predecessors failed to restore sufficient growth and profitability. The bank has yet to convince investors that it can meet goals for raising revenue in businesses it wants to keep, while exiting stock trading and firing staff across the firm. The lender is planning to cut about 18,000 jobs.

The considerations are at an early stage and the bank may decide not to proceed, the people said.

The investment banking role places big demands on Sewing’s calendar, several people said. He speaks to direct reports on an almost daily basis and travels frequently to stay in touch with clients and staff, they said. That’s on top of other duties he’s taken on, including a recent decree that he and two management board members must sign off on any new hires.

Deutsche Bank declined along with the broader market Tuesday, dropping 2.2% as of 4:54 p.m. in Frankfurt. The stock is still up about 5.3% this year.

The investment bank division -- formerly known as CIB -- has long been Deutsche Bank’s biggest source of trouble as revenue plunged by almost a third between 2015 and last year. Sewing split up the unit in the revamp, turning the part that provides cash management and trade finance to companies into a standalone business now known as Corporate Bank, while placing equities trading and some other parts into a wind-down unit.

That reshuffle was part of Sewing’s plan to reduce reliance on sometimes volatile trading income and return to the lender’s roots as a financier of European companies. The CEO has been keen to stress the importance of the securities unit, despite the reorganization and exit of some businesses.

“Our investment bank is, and will remain, core to what we do, and it will become a much better business,” Sewing told analysts when he presented his strategy reboot in July. “We have great investment banking businesses that are crucial for our corporate and wealth management clients and also for other businesses.”

Sewing also created a governance body below the management board known as group management committee and appointed several executives to run the business, some of whom report directly to him, namely corporate bank head Stefan Hoops, Mark Fedorcik as head of corporate finance and financing and fixed-income trading head Ram Nayak. He also made Louise Kitchen and Ashley Wilson co-heads of the wind-down unit.

--With assistance from Nicholas Comfort.

To contact the reporters on this story: Steven Arons in Frankfurt at sarons@bloomberg.net;Sonali Basak in New York at sbasak7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Christian Baumgaertel

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