Deutsche Bank Names New Risk Chief as It Fills Vacant Roles
Deutsche Bank Names New Risk Chief as It Fills Vacant Lead Roles
(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG appointed a risk chief just two days after nominating a new supervisory board chairman, filling the two top leadership roles that will become vacant next year.
Olivier Vigneron will replace Chief Risk Officer Stuart Lewis in June, Germany’s largest lender said in a statement on Sunday. It said Friday it will propose former Aegon NV Chief Executive Officer Alexander Wynaendts as chairman when incumbent Paul Achleitner steps back from the role at the annual general meeting in May.
Lewis had previously announced his decision to leave Deutsche Bank after next year’s AGM, and Vigneron will join the lender as a senior group director in March, it said. Vigneron has served as chief risk officer for Natixis SA since 2020 and previously worked at JPMorgan Chase & Co, according to the statement.
“I am pleased that the supervisory board has now addressed the open questions in the bank’s leadership team,” Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing said in a message to staff. “This clarity gives us further impetus on the path towards achieving our goals and becoming sustainably profitable.”
The appointments provide certainty for Sewing as he heads into the final year of a sweeping turnaround plan unveiled in mid-2019. He’s also set to present a strategy update that will spell out his vision for the bank in March. Sewing has already shifted his focus from cost cutting back to growth, after leading the company to its first annual profit in six years.
Lewis is Deutsche Bank’s longest-serving management board member, having served for more than nine years. He won public praise from Sewing earlier this year after Deutsche Bank avoided a hit from the collapse of the hedge funds Archegos Capital Management thanks to rapid action from executives including the risk chief.
However, Lewis is also being probed by prosecutors over his role in Cum-Ex dividend arbitrage transactions which hurt German taxpayers, a person familiar has said. And he ceded supervision of anti-financial crime to Chief Administrative Office Stefan Simon in a management reshuffle about a month before the German financial watchdog Bafin expanded the mandate of its anti-money laundering monitor at the lender in April.
Read More: Deutsche Bank Risk Chief Lewis Said to Face Cum-Ex Probe
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