Anshu Jain steps down as Deutsche Bank co-CEO after record fine on lender
DOUBLE SWORD Jurgen Fitschen also resigns after regulators penalise bank for rigging rates
LONDON: Anshu Jain and his coCEO at Deutsche Bank, Jurgen Fitschen, stepped down from their positions weeks after US and UK regulators imposed a record penalty on the lender for rigging Libor rates.
The supervisory board of the bank decided at an extraordinary meeting to appoint John Cryan, 54, to the position of Co-CEO, effective July 1, 2015.
Cryan’s appointment follows the decision of Fitschen, 66, and Jain, 52, to step down, the bank said. While Jain will step down on June 30, 2015, the board has asked him to continue as consultant till January 2016.
Jain and Fitschen’s contracts were due to run through to March 31, 2017. Upon Fitschen’s departure on May 19, 2016, Cryan will become the sole CEO.
London interbank offered rate (Libor) is a benchmark rate that some of the world’s leading banks charge each other for short-term loans.
In April, the lender agreed a record-breaking $2.5 billion (£1.7 billion) penalty for its role in manipulating the Libor benchmark, with the regulators in the UK and US finding that Deutsche employees misled investigators. The penalty was the biggest in the Libor rigging scandal.
Deutsche Bank has struggled to restore an image tarnished by regulatory and legal problems, including probes into alleged manipulation of benchmark rates, mis-selling of derivatives, tax evasion and money laundering.
In a last-ditch effort to restore confidence in its leadership, the lender presented a radical management shake-up on May 21, only to face calls for Jain to resign from staff situated in its own headquarters in Frankfurt. But, some investors demanded more changes to restore confidence.
Jain landed the top spot at Deutsche in 2012 after the investment banking division he ran consistently delivered up to 85% of group profit and frequently outperformed peers. But tougher regulatory requirements and litigations took the shine off a division often referred to internally as “Anshu’s army”.
>> CONTINUED ON P16 He grew up using public transport in New Delhi, and had a very modest upbringing, thanks to his civil servant father. Both he and his wife are avid wildlife enthusiasts, who named their daughter after the ‘forest’ (Aranya means forest)! A hard-core vegan, Jain is as much in love with wildlife photography as with investment banking. A look at the man
52
Co-CEO, Deutsche Bank Compensation in 2014:
(`46 cr)
Born: Jan 7, 1963 in Jaipur, Rajasthan
Wife: Geetika, a travel writer and children’s book author Children: Arjun and Aranya
Jain lives in a two-bedroom apartment in New York, which he purchased in 2012 for $7.2 million
Ajit Jain, who currently heads US-based Berkshire Hathaway’s reinsurance business and is tipped to be the possible successor to chairman Warren Buffett, is his cousin
He is an avid cricket buff and has often been seen among audience in key matches
EDUCATION
1985: MBA, University Of Massachusetts
1983: BA, Shri Ram College (Delhi University)
CAREER
1985-88: Kidder Peabody, New
York, in the area of derivatives research
1988-95: Set up and ran the global hedge fund coverage group for Merrill Lynch,
New York
1995 onwards: Worked in various roles in Deutsche Bank including head of global markets; member of the group executive committee; became co-chairman along with Juergen Fitschen on June 1, 2012
He is also the non-executive director of S. African oil firm Sasol LONDON: David and Simon Reuben, the Mumbai-born British billionaire brothers, whose interests include metals trading, data centres and horse racing, have ‘taken control’ of the Sahara-owned Grosvenor House hotel in London, The Sunday Times reported.
The Sahara group has been trying to raise funds to seal the bail amount for its chairman, Subrata Roy, who has been in Delhi’s Tihar jail for over a year.
“Sahara India Group has successfully managed to avert the enforced sale of the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. A team led by the Group chairman has successfully negotiated a lastminute deal with the Reuben brothers, who are now in the final stage of taking over the loan portfolio from the Bank of China,” Sahara said in a statement.
According to The Sunday Times report, the Reuben brothers had “taken control of the Grosvenor House in London and two other luxury hotels in New York through a $850-million (`5,500 crore) debt deal” after clinching the purchase of two loans against the properties from Bank of China late last week.
“They are understood to have given a four-month extension to the Sahara Group”, the report added.
The Sahara group had bought the Grosvenor House and the Dreams and Plaza hotels in New York between 2010 and 2012 by funding the deals with debt from Bank of China, but faced losing the assets after defaulting on the US part of the loans last year.