This archive report was first published on 8 July 2019.
On July 8, 2019, Deutsche Bank's share price hit a low of 6.66 euros ($7.47) before closing down 5.4 percent at 6.79 euros, following the announcement of 18,000 job losses by 2022 as the company transitions out of high-risk investment banking.
Deutsche Bank's chief executive, Christian Sewing, emphasized the need to focus on the bank's core competencies and provide support to its strong businesses while withdrawing it from others. He stated, "We need to focus our bank on where we are most competitive... (and) provide our strong businesses the oxygen to prosper while withdrawing it from others," during a press conference on Monday.
The restructuring plan, which spans the globe, has already been felt in Asia, where the bank is winding down its equities business from Sydney to Mumbai. Attendance at Deutsche Bank's offices in the International Commercial Centre in Hong Kong had already fallen dramatically in recent days, according to an insider quoted by Bloomberg News.
Staff were particularly unhappy about what they perceived as poor communication between Germany and Asia in recent weeks, as reports of the new strategy circulated. The Balls Brothers pub nearby was doing a brisk trade by early afternoon, with many of the 50-odd drinkers having shopping bags filled with what looked to be files and mementoes.
Germany's biggest lender is slashing around one-fifth of its workforce, reducing it to 74,000 employees, in a bid to cut annual costs by six billion euros ($6.7 billion) and return to sustained profits. The new round of job cuts comes on top of some 6,000 already carried out over the past year.
