Deutsche Bank to Unveil Digital Product Soon to Appeal to Youth

(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG will present to the public a new digital-banking product “in a few weeks,” management board member Frank Strauss said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper.

“We have consistently continued to work on the project, despite what could be read in some places in the meantime,” Strauss, the German lender’s head of private and commercial banking, said in the interview. “We are building something that appeals to young people and affects payments.”

Deutsche Bank this week posted its lowest third-quarter revenue in eight years and abandoned some turnaround targets amid an extended stock slump. Only six months into the tenure of Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing, questions are growing louder about the future of the financial behemoth.

For Strauss, the bank’s digital investing platform has been a success, attracting about half a billion euros thanks to accelerating inflows.

As part of the cost-cutting plan, Strauss confirmed that 150 branches of subsidiary Postbank will be closed by the end of the year, and that Deutsche Bank won’t offer free checking accounts in the future.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alessandro Speciale in Frankfurt at aspeciale@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Gordon at pgordon6@bloomberg.net, Paul Abelsky, James Cone

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