Deutsche Bank plans to promote Sewing as CEO
Deutsche Bank AG’s supervisory board is leaning toward naming Christian Sewing to succeed Chief Executive Officer John Cryan and promoting Garth Ritchie to sole investment banking head as part of a management overhaul, people with knowledge of the discussions said.
No final decision has been made as the supervisory board prepares to meet Sunday evening to discuss the situation at the top of the bank, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private. The Frankfurt-based lender, which said it expects to announce a decision after the board meeting, is preparing the third top leadership appointment in six years amid pressure from investors to improve profitability and reverse a share slump.
Sewing, a lifelong Deutsche Bank veteran, is codeputy CEO along with investment banking co-head Marcus Schenck. Sewing jointly heads the private and commercial bank with Frank Strauss, who the company is also considering naming sole head of that unit, people familiar with the matter said.
Officials for Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the likely appointments.
Ritchie would become sole head of the corporate and investment bank, which he has run with Schenck for the past year, as Schenck considers leaving, people with knowledge of the matter said
At stake is the future direction of Germany’s biggest lender. At the heart of the internal struggle are questions about its US investment banking operations and how big a role they should have within the broader company in the future. Cryan has started a review of the activities with a view to scaling them back.
Sewing won plaudits for successfully negotiating job cuts in the German retail unit with the influential workers’ councils, implementing the agreement on schedule and without a strong media backlash. He also headed Deutsche Bank’s internal probe into its role into alleged money laundering at the bank’s Russian unit, the so-called mirror trades, which led to the lender shuttering its securities unit in the country.
Deutsche Bank’s revenue from trading stocks and bonds, its biggest single source of income, has tumbled 32 percent since the end of 2015, triggering concern among investors.
Over recent weeks, Achleitner intensified a search for a successor. Discussions focused on a leader who speaks German and who works well with regulators, people familiar with the matter said.