Deutsche Bank Regulators Urge Sewing to Cut Responsibilities

(Bloomberg) --

Deutsche Bank AG’s top supervisors told Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing they’d prefer him to hand oversight for investment bank to someone else so he can fully focus on his main role, according to people familiar with the matter.

The European Central Bank and Germany’s BaFin raised the issue in informal talks with Sewing and aren’t pushing for immediate change, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing the private information. They signaled a handover of the responsibility next year could be sufficient, the people said.

“We’re in continuous constructive dialogue with our regulators and there are presently no plans to change management board responsibility for our investment bank,” a spokesman for Deutsche Bank said in a statement. A BaFin spokesman had no comment. A representatives for the ECB, who initially declined to comment, later said that the story is “incorrect.”

Sewing added responsibility for the investment bank to his CEO role after the ouster of former head Garth Ritchie during the lender’s restructuring in July. Sewing has been considering hiring an external executive to hand over that role to ease the workload on him, Bloomberg reported in September, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The pressure by regulators was first reported by the Financial Times on Monday. The lender on Friday said that it added Fabrizio Campelli to the management board to lead the restructuring. The “size of the task” warrants the appointment, Supervisory Board Chairman Paul Achleitner said.

The appointment of “Campelli as chief transformation officer gives the CEO and his deputy far more time to focus on the strategic direction and development of the business,” the spokesman said Monday.

To contact the reporters on this story: Steven Arons in Frankfurt at sarons@bloomberg.net;Nicholas Comfort in Frankfurt at ncomfort1@bloomberg.net

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

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