Giant German lender’s threat to 4,000 jobs

STRUGGLING Deutsche Bank has been attacked for threatening to pull 4,000 staff out of London as part of a German lobbying operation to hurt the City.

The lender – which has close ties to Germany’s Europhile government – said it could shift nearly half its 9,000 UK staff abroad because of Brexit.

Chief regulatory officer Sylvie Matherat made the apocalyptic claim at a Frankfurt conference organised by a lobby group which exists to promote the city as a financial centre.

She said: ‘For front office people, if you want to deal with an EU client, you need to be based in the EU. Does it mean I have to move all the front office people to Germany or not? We’re speaking of 2,000 people.’

Another 2,000 roles in risk management could also be affected, she said. But experts poured scorn on her words, pointing out that last month the bank announced plans to move into a large office in the heart of London.

Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, a member of the Commons Treasury Select Committee, said: ‘Deutsche Bank obviously has a strong relationship with the German government that it will want to protect, but it does a huge amount of business in London.

‘It would be very odd to move into a new building and then not fill it.’

Veteran City commentator David Buik, of stockbroker Panmure Gordon, said: ‘Frankfurt is a perfectly pleasant city but there’s no way that it has the infrastructure to house 4,000 investment bankers at the drop of a hat. This doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense.’

Deutsche is in talks to take a 500,000sqft office in the heart of London, committing to a UK presence until at least 2048.