Sewing to take over at Deutsche Bank

GERMANY’S biggest lender, Deutsche Bank, was preparing last night to name Christian Sewing as its new chief executive as part of a management shake-up.

He will succeed John Cryan in the third top leadership appointment in six years amid pressure from investors to improve profitability and reverse a share slump.

Mr Sewing, a lifelong Deutsche Bank veteran, is co-deputy CEO along with investment banking co-head Marcus Schenck. Mr Sewing jointly heads the private and commercial bank with Frank Strauss, who the company is also considering naming sole head of that unit.

Deutsche Bank was also preparing last night to promote Garth Ritchie as sole head of investment banking.

At stake is the future direction of Deutsche Bank. 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.

Mr Cryan has started a review of the activities with a view to scaling them back.

Mr 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 led 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 32pc since 2015.