Deutsche sobers up after barmy mega-merger wheeze
ASK any banking chief executive which of his peers has the toughest job, and they won’t hesitate: John Cryan of Deutsche Bank. Negative interest rates, a huge weighting in tough bond and share-trading businesses and a major London operation rattled by Brexit would trouble any Continental bank boss.
But Cryan is running one with a multi-trillion dollar derivatives portfolio nobody seems able to value, plus potentially billions of dollars of fines. The IMF says his bank represents the biggest systemic risk to global banking.
Sleep must not come easily to the Yorkshireman.
Perhaps exhaustion might explain why a daft plan to merge with that other hobbled German finance giant, Commerzbank, was even considered last month.
The idea was shocking in its absurdity. Both banks have heroic
Jim Armitage
internal restructuring to do before they even think about pursuing complicated mega-mergers.
Thankfully for Deutsche’s 8000 London staff, and for the global banking system which relies on it, the talks were abandoned. Today come reports more sober plans will win the day at a Deutsche board summit this weekend. Namely, an accelerated internal revamp including selling chunks of its asset management arm.
It probably won’t be enough to stave off the need for a massive share issue to raise capital as well, but at least it would show the board has truly come to its senses. NEVER wear brown in town, old boy. It’s an adage as well worn as the old school tie.
But, according to the government’s social-mobility watchdog today, it’s one that stateeducated graduates somehow aren’t aware of. Hence, they wear tan brogues for interviews in the City and fail to get the job.
It’s easy to dismiss this as nonsense. Would a bank really rule out a decent candidate, in this modern, post-Armani era, on the colour of their footwear? Of course not. But it could be part of the package of attributes that get recruiters tutting.
Work experience, accents and, in some cases, the school you attended, all go into the mix from a City recruiter’s perspective, whether consciously or not. And you don’t tend to tick all those boxes unless you come from a relatively wealthy background with the right connections.
Even if recruiters are schoolblind, it’s the top private schools which encourage good work placements and best prepare pupils for the world of work. I say that as a comp boy whose careers adviser recommended I went for floristry or the Army.
In fairness, the City has become far more egalitarian in recent decades, but investment banking and wealth management remain the preserve of the plummy.
As for the footwear, The Times today prints the social mobility story alongside a picture of the Eton students visiting Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. All are immaculately suited, and not a brown shoe in sight.