Graeme Wearden 

Deutsche Bank staff sent home as 18,000 job cuts begin – as it happened

Deutsche Bank staff across the globe have learned how the bank’s massive restructuring plan will affect them
  
  

Pedestrians walk past the offices of Deutsche Bank in central London.
Pedestrians walk past the offices of Deutsche Bank in central London. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

And finally... Business Insider have filed a nice piece from outside Deutsche Bank’s Wall Street offices, as the company began to let staff go.

Here’s a flavour:

Even though it was mid-morning after a holiday weekend and prime time to get into the office a little late, the door was almost exclusively letting people out. At one point, roughly five people were leaving a minute, while maybe one came back inside a few minutes later.

Many of those who left the office and did not return were presumably let go from Deutsche, but almost none of them carried their desk belongings down with them. Instead, most were empty-handed and on their phones. There were a few who left holding folders, and two who carried down some belongings in blue, bank-branded tote bags.

And while many staff said they hadn’t been laid off today, there are worries about the future too:

Multiple people who left the building indicated that they were worried that more layoffs were coming. Some of them were speaking over the phone, others in large groups, but the sentiment seemed the same. They all sensed that more cuts loomed.

“I don’t feel so safe,” said one man as he walked to lunch with a group of co-workers.

Goodnight! GW

The prospect of thousands of Deutsche Bank staff losing their jobs dampened the mood on Wall Street today.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended the day down 115 points, or -0.4%, at 26,806.

Hello again. The Deutsche Bank cuts make the front page of tomorrow’s FT:

Full story: Deutsche Bank starts cutting jobs with 18,000 at risk worldwide

Here’s our updated news story on the black day for Deutsche Bank staff around the world:

Deutsche Bank started slashing thousands of jobs in the City of London and in New York only hours after announcing a drastic plan to reduce its global workforce by 18,000.

Germany’s biggest lender employs almost 8,000 people in the UK, with 7,000 in London, which is one of the main hubs for its global investment bank, where the bulk of the job losses will be focused. The jobs being cut make up about a fifth of Deutsche’s global workforce of 91,500.

Some staff in London were reported to be in tears after hearing their jobs had gone. Workers started leaving the bank’s building in the City at around 10am carrying bags of belongings. Some said they were told their passes would stop working at 11am.

A male contract worker on his way into the building in Great Winchester Street said: “The bank is not doing well, so they have to do something to get back up and running.”

Deutsche has failed to recover from the financial crisis of 2008 and, faced with rising costs and a falling share price, Deutsche’s chief executive, Christian Sewing, is shutting the division that sells and trades shares, and cutting back on other businesses, too. The shares, which peaked at €110 in 2007, have crashed to less than €7 and lost another 5% as details of the job cuts were revealed.

The cull started in the Asia Pacific region, soon after the cuts were confirmed on Sunday evening in Europe, with employees being let go in Sydney and Hong Kong. A Hong Kong equities trader told Reuters the mood was gloomy as people were called individually to meetings.

“[There are a] couple of rounds of chats with HR and then they give you this packet and you are out of the building,” the trader said.

In New York hundreds of workers were summoned to the cafeteria at Deutsche’s Wall Street office to hear their fates. Employees were seen leaving with their redundancy terms in large white envelopes. Staff at the nearby Full Shilling Irish bar were expecting laid-off Deutsche workers to congregate in the afternoon.

Here’s the full story:

More bad news. Danske Bank, the Danish lender caught up in a massive money-laundering scandal in Estonia, has also just issued a profits warning.

Danske is lowering its earnings guidance, and also predicting higher costs for compliance and anti money-laundering efforts.

Ouch! In another blow, German chemicals giant BASF has just issued a profits warning.

The company plans to slash 6,000 jobs, after realising that earnings in the current quarter are “significantly below” expectations. It is blaming a downturn in automotive markets and the North American agricultural sector -- two areas that have suffered from the US-China trade war.

Back on Wall Street, employees on Deutsche Bank’s equities floor said the day has been dominated by meetings about restructuring.

One, who anticipated that the layoffs on the equities floor would be swift, told us:

“It’s obviously going to suck for a couple of years.”

Bank officials had indicated that Deutsche planned to overhaul its technology capabilities, suggesting one area where the trading floor had lagged.

Here’s our profile of Christian Sewing, the man trying to turn Deutsche Bank around with 18,000 job cuts:

Deutsche Bank shares have closed 5.4% lower tonight at €6.78, as investors digest the company’s restructuring plan.

As flagged earlier, analysts have concerns over the implementation of the plan, and whether Deutsche can achieve solid growth while also cutting its investment bank arm.

Grim-faced Deutsche employees leaving the trading floor at 60 Wall Street are extremely tight-lipped, and refusing to talk to reporters.

At The Full Shilling, the Irish-themed pub where traders go after the market closed, staff were expecting laid-off employees to gather after four pm.

Updated

More US-based staff who have unfortunately been caught up in the restructuring plan have been leaving Deutsche’s offices on Wall Street:

Staff at Deutsche Bank’s Wall Street office were summoned the cafeteria to learn of their fate, says Reuters.

A notice inside the building’s lobby told staff the cafeteria would be closed until 11.30 a.m. EST [4.30pm UK time].

Hundreds of staff were informed during the meetings that their positions were being cut, sources within the bank told Reuters. They also received details of their redundancy packages.

One source said staff could be seen saying their goodbyes to colleagues upon leaving the cafeteria.

It’s largely quiet outside Deutsche Bank’s New York offices in midtown Manhattan today as employees are updated on the restructuring plan.

A compliance officer at rival investment firm Blackstone, which is headquartered in the same swank Park Avenue building, said he was not surprised to learn of the mass layoffs.

“You do fucked up shit and it comes back on you,” he said, referring to the multiple allegations Deutsche is facing over Russian money laundering.

“We run our clients through a sieve. Any hint, any negative news articles, any associations. It’s federal law to ask questions. Our reputation is very important to us.”

Deutsche’s New York headquarters is at 60 Wall Street (a little further south in Lower Manhattan, not far from the US stock exchange), where staff will also be briefed on Christian Sewing’s plans.

Nils Pratley: Deutsche repair job should have started years ago

My colleague Nils Pratley has put his finger on the problem with Christian Sewing’s plan - it should have happened a long time ago.

He writes:

Sewing’s lower-risk formula for Deutsche’s future sounds more sensible. The bank will concentrate on German retail and business markets while trying to grow in fund management; and the investment banking unit will be a slimmer operation that looks after big eurozone companies’ currency and bond needs.

The open question, though, is whether Deutsche has seen the light too late. “What Deutsche Bank plans to do in the next two to three years is no more than what US and European banks have been doing in cascades ever since the end of the global financial crisis more than 10 years ago,” said the rating agency Scope.

Quite: at a moment when the big banking beasts, even RBS and Barclays in the UK, have declared their years of restructuring to be over, Deutsche is only now talking the language of radicalism. Job cuts are the easy part. The lesson from elsewhere is that it takes about a decade to repair a bank as broken as Deutsche.

Here’s the full piece:

Deutsche Bank’s shares are still the worst-performing stock on the German DAX index today. They’re down 5% in late trading, knocking the Dax down by 0.3%.

Connor Campbell of City firm SpreadEx says:

Investors seeming to change their opinion on the announced 18,000 jobs-cull and the scale of the bank’s challenges.

Photographers are now poised outside Deutsche Bank’s New York offices, waiting for news of how the restructuring will affect staff there.

Goldman Sachs has warned that Deutsche Bank faces challenges in implementing its “very deep restructuring”.

GS told clients that it hadn’t expected Deutsche to pull out of equities trading altogether:

Media reporting ahead of Sunday’s board meeting was intense, yet the announcements still surprised in terms of their scope and scale.

“Deutsche Bank’s structural challenges, as we see them, fall into three categories: the absence of a high-return platform, elevated funding costs, and uncertainty around the scope of its investment bank business.”

Investors may agree that Deutsche Bank has a tough challenge.. shares are now down almost 7% afternoon trading.

The big question, how does Deutsche Bank achieve growth while retrenching from investment banking?

It is pinning its hopes on corporate banking, foreign exchange, deal-making, asset management, and private banking. They may be less volatile than trading equities and interest rate products, but there’s still plenty of competition - especially with the rise of fintech.

This is not a great time to be losing a job in finance -- trading often goes into a summer lull, so banks may not be hiring.

But Joseph Leung, managing partner at City headhunters Aubreck Leung, thinks Deutsche staff who got bad news today could still be in demand. He told Bloomberg:

The Deutsche people could be attractive as they are effectively free agents -- they will likely be getting their stock and won’t have any notice period, so can start straightaway.”

Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing has told financial analysts that he will invest a “substantial” amount of his fixed salary in Deutsche Bank shares.

A sign of confidence in the bank? If so, it needed it -- shares were down 5% in Frankfurt a few minutes ago, after an early rally faded.

Updated

Deutsche restructuring: What the experts say

Financial analysts at other banks have cautiously welcomed Deutsche’s restructuring plan (while perhaps counting their blessings that they don’t work there).

Royal Bank of Canada say the plan is “more radical than expected”, leading them to raise their price target from €7.50 to €8.

But they still reckon the shares are a “speculative risk”, and likely to underperform the sector while the cost-cutting plan is implemented.

Deutsche Bank targets an adjusted cost base by 2022 of €17bn, which is 22% lower than its 2019 target of €21.8bn.

It will exit its equities sales and trading business and resize its FICC (income instruments, currencies, and commodities) division, especially the rates team. It will also accelerate the integration of Postbank.

JP Morgan Cazanove says Deutsche is finally giving up its ambitions to be a top investment bank, telling clients:

Deutsche Bank restructuring in our view is bold and for the first time not half-baked but a real strategic shift giving up its Tier I investment bank ambitions.

DB is rightsizing to where it came from originally, a corporate bank with the addition of a large Fixed Income footprint

Deutsche Bank's share price over the last decade

Correction: That pizza delivery to Deutsche Bank’s London office was apparently 30 large pizzas, so not as big as we thought. Sorry for the confusion.

Updated

Reuters has caught up with some of Deutsche Bank’s London staff who have lost their jobs today.

One IT worker leaving its City of London office confirmed that some staff got the bad news this morning.

“I was terminated this morning. There was a very quick meeting and that was it”

A second, on the equity sales side, emerged from the building and headed to the pub, saying:

“I got laid off, where else would I go?”

Over in New York, Deutsche Bank staff are heading into the office to learn whether they still have a job.

According to Efinancial News, some US staff have been told to report for meetings. That could be bad news for those on the equities trading side, which Deutsche plans to exit.

In New York, equities professionals were among those receiving a letter yesterday from CEO Christian Sewing acknowledging that, “this impacts people and affects their lives in a profound way.” One said he arrived in the office early and was still able to login to the bank’s systems.

“They kept everyone out of the systems both physically and virtually over the weekend, but for now everything’s open,” he said.

However, he said members of the NY equities floor have been asked to attend ominous meetings later in the day: “9.30am is when most people in my division have been asked to report to the auditorium to be fired.”

Other New York employees said people are being invited to these meetings even if they’re on holiday.

A large consignment of pizza has just arrived at Deutsche Bank’s London offices.

According to a delivery person, some 30 large boxes have been ordered for staff at its headquarters today [corrected].

The Balls Brothers Austin Friars bar round the corner from the Deutsche head office is starting to fill up with lunchtime drinkers.

One fund manager who was drinking bubbly inside the bar with his mates said they were not from Deutsche, adding:

“We are celebrating that we are not at Deutsche.”

A woman he was drinking with said she knew how people at Deutsche felt because she had been laid off ten years ago from her job in equities trading - the division Deutsche is shutting down - at the German bank Dresdner, which got taken over by Commerzbank. She now works as a freelance photographer and said she can spend more time with her children.

She said the support staff in banks would fare worst because they would not have been able to set much money aside and would not get a big severance package.

For example, when she lost her job during the financial crisis, she talked to the young women in the coffee shop on her trading floor at Dresdner who told her they would also lose their jobs - they were being given two weeks’ notice and had to work their notice period.

Updated

A couple of people have now left Deutsche Bank’s offices carrying boxes:

We can’t confirm whether they’ve been hit by the job cuts, but the scene is reminiscent of the collapse of Lehman Brothers more than a decade ago.

Summary: Deutsche job cuts begin

A quick summary of the main events so far:

First let me say this: I am very much aware that in rebuilding our bank, we are making deep cuts.

I personally greatly regret the impact this will have on some of you. In the long-term interests of our bank, however, we have no choice other than to approach this transformation decisively.

  • Under the plan, Deutsche will downsize its investment bank, stop dealing in equities, shift underperforming assets to a new unit where they will be wound down, and create a new corporate banking arm.

  • It will also cut its global workforce to around 72,000 by 20220. The plan will cost €7.4bn by 2022, including a €3bn hit this quarter.

  • On a conference call, Sewing told reporters that Deutsche was still planning to open a new London HQ, above Moorgate Station.

Updated

Deutsche Bank staff facing job losses in London will be given “notification risk” notices, says the FT.

Then, after a consultation session with human resources, they will be given the rest of the day off.

Deutsche Bank’s restructuring plan is the latest twist in its “desperate struggle for survival”, say the analyst team at foreign exchange platform FxPro.

But although its shares have recovered from a record low below €6 last month to around €7.40 this morning, the future looks challenging.

By tempering ambitions and reducing staff – including the exit from the U.S. market – Deutsche Bank abandons the ambitions of further development.

Looking ahead, it calls into question its ability to gain a foothold above the level of €20 per share, not to mention the historical highs near €95.”

My colleague Julia Kollewe is stationed outside Deutsche Bank’s offices in London.

There are several taxis waiting outside 1 Great Winchester Street office, perhaps for those who have been told to clear their desks this morning.

One banker who was carrying a laptop bag declined to comment as he got into a pre-booked black cab.

Updated

Alexandra Annecke, portfolio manager at German asset manager Union Investment, says Deutsche Bank’s restructuring is long overdue.

She writes:

“In view of the changed framework conditions, the adjustment of the strategy announced by Deutsche Bank was well overdue.

Regulation, the low interest rate environment and competitive pressures, combined with the long adherence to an old strategy, all required radical steps. The announced measures are indeed a radical cure.

Deutsche Bank’s problems are compounded by the weakness in Germany’s economy, which nearly fell into recession last year.

In a worrying development this morning, German investment morale has plunged this month to a near ten-year low.

A wider measure of confidence across the eurozone also weakened, to its lowest since November 2014, according to research group Sentix.

Sentix director Patrick Hussy fears that a German recession “looks unavoidable”, as the US-China trade war hurts its companies.

“The high dependence on exports and the Chinese sales market is increasingly becoming a burden and the trade dispute hangs like a sword of Damocles over the one-time poster boy of the euro region.”

The FT has also confirmed that Deutsche Bank staff are being asked to leave the building:

One staff member who said he was a manager in the equities department said he had been called into a meeting room, dismissed and told to clear his desk and leave.

“It’s quite strange because the stuff I was working on still impacts the portfolio so I don’t know what they’re going to do with it,” he said as he exited Deutsche’s London headquarters carrying a small white box with personal effects.

London staff asked to leave the building

Q: Are people being asked to leave?

A: “Yes”, one Deutsche member of staff in London confirms.

The German bank employs 7,990 in the UK - 7,000 in London.

Most them work in the main offices on Great Winchester Street [round the back of London Wall]. Deutsche also has an office in Canary Wharf.

Updated

Some Deutsche Bank staff may have seen the writing on the wall, and not shown up to learn their fate:

London staff 'in tears' over job cuts

Back outside Deutsche’s London offices, an IT contractor tells us he had heard that about 100 people had been made redundant on the fourth floor at the 1 Great Winchester Street office and some people were crying.

The early rally in Deutsche Bank shares has fizzled out:

The bank’s bonds also enjoyed a brief rise, but that’s gone too...

[CoCo = contingent convertible bonds, a kind of debt that converts into equity if the issuer hits trouble]

Reuters has done an excellent wrap-up of comments from Deutsche Bank staff across Asia-Pacific offices today, as they learned whether they were affected by the job cuts.

One equities trader in Hong Kong said he and his colleagues were escorted from their meetings with Human Resources (HR) to the elevators without being allowed to return to their desks.

There is hardly any work getting done today and folks are just mailing or calling friends or headhunters. Half of the floor is gone and others are just waiting to be called in. Some people are saying their byes even before being called in.”

Another equities trader confirmed that the mood was bleak [understandable, given Deutsche is bailing out of the equities business]:

“The mood inside is pretty gloomy. People are being called in individually into the conference rooms with a couple of rounds of chats with HR, who will give you this packet then and you are out of the building. Even those who are staying back don’t think it’s the turning point for the bank. Who wants to go into a bad bank just to wind down the businesses? So more people will leave when they get the opportunity.

Personally, I think they (management) have taken a very shortsighted decision: Equities is a cyclical business and it’s not like DB was the only bank not making any money in this.”

More here: Factbox: What Deutsche bankers are saying about the 18,000 global job cuts

Several people have just left Deutsche Bank’s offices on 1 Great Winchester Street, carrying large bags.

Would they like to comment on what’s happening?

“No, thanks,” replies one young woman, carrying a pink holdall with documents sticking out.

Updated

Deutsche Bank’s chief financial officer, James von Moltke, is also on the conference call.

He says the bank is striving to “break even or better” in 2020, but admits there is significant uncertainty in that forecast.

[reminder: Deutsche will make a loss of €2.8bn this quarter, due to the restructuring].

Deutsche Bank says its plans for a new London headquarters will not be affected by the restructuring.

The HQ is being constructed in the City, above the Moorgate ticket offices, with a large steel-and-glass facade. It will create 564,000 square feet of space, including retail and commercial office space.

Here’s an artist impression of Deutsche Bank’s new headquarters in London, from architects WilkinsonEyre.

The mood inside Deutsche Bank’s London offices must be grim this morning, as staff learn their fate.

The Telegraph’s Lucy Burton had heard some staff have been told to clear their desks this morning, before their security passes are deactivated.

DB CEO Christian Sewing adds that London will remain “a critical part” of Deutsche Bank, from a size point of view.

Deutsche currently employs around 7,500 people in the City.

Deutche Bank CEO: We were trying to do too much

Deutsche Bank is holding a conference call with the media now.

CEO Christian Sewing is explaining that Deutsche Bank spread itself too thinly across banking, as it tried to compete with Wall Street investment banks while also offering private and commercial banking services.

The WSJ’s Jenny Strasburg has more details:

Deutsche Bank has confirmed to Australian Associated Press that it will wind down its Australian equities division, but won’t say how many jobs will be cut.

AAP says:

The bank was meeting its Australian staff on Monday to discuss how the firm’s global downsizing plan would affect its local presence.

Deutsche confirmed to AAP its Australian equities division would wind down as part of plans to scrap its global equities business

Former City banker Philip Augar says Deutsche Bank is finally adjusting to the impact of the financial crisis a decade ago.

Low interest rates, for example, make investment banking less profitable. Deutsche is also laden with billions of euros of derivatives contracts, many of which are now being shuttled into its new ‘bad bank’ to be wound down.

Augar explained on Radio 5’s Wake Up To Money this morning that Deutsche has been putting off the inevitable for a long time...

DB CEO: I 'deeply regret' such deep cuts

Deutsche Bank’s CEO says he “deeply regrets” the impact that his restructuring plan will have on the workforce, with one in five jobs to go.

In a letter to DB staff, Christian Sewing explains why 18,000 jobs are being cut:

First let me say this: I am very much aware that in rebuilding our bank, we are making deep cuts.

I personally greatly regret the impact this will have on some of you. In the long-term interests of our bank, however, we have no choice other than to approach this transformation decisively.

He also outlined how he plans to take DB “back to its roots”, cutting fixed costs and refocusing on corporate banking not investment banking.

Sewing says:

  • Going forward, we will have four businesses that will be entirely focused on our clients.
  • We are focusing our Investment Bank, we will be less dependent on Sales & Trading and are shrinking our balance sheet.
  • We are creating a Corporate Bank which will be at the centre of our bank.
  • We aim to reduce our adjusted costs by over a quarter and to simultaneously invest 13 billion euros in technology by 2022.
  • And we are not asking our shareholders to pay for this transformation but instead plan to return capital to them.
  • All of this will create a new, better Deutsche Bank.

However, we also have to face the fact that this transformation will require uncomfortable decisions. This is especially true for the sizeable workforce reductions. I can assure you that my colleagues and I appreciate that this impacts people and affects their lives in a profound way. That is why we will do whatever it takes to implement these cuts as responsibly as possible – I consider it our duty to do so.

The works councils and employee representatives will be consulted where applicable and statutory participation rights will be safeguarded.

Several Deutsche Bank board members are leaving the company, under the restructuring plan.

Chief regulatory officer Sylvie Matherat, and private & commercial bank chief Frank Strauss will depart on July 31.

Deutsche Bank’s investment banking chief Garth Ritchie - who has been collecting a €250k a month salary boost for making preparations for Brexit - also quit late last week.

Deutsche says these departures are part of a shake-up to “accelerate decision-making’ and encourage entrepreneurship.

Here’s the official announcement from Deutsche Bank yesterday, outlining its restructuring:

Deutsche Bank outlines significant strategic transformation and restructuring plans

Deutsche Bank staff have been arriving at work in central London, to learn how the restructuring plan affects them.

Deutsche has several offices close to Liverpool Street station, within the City of London.

One male contractor said on his way into 1 Great Winchester Street where Deutsche’s trading arm is based, told us:

“The bank is not doing well so they have to do something to get back up and running.”

Other staff are declining to comment.

Deutsche Bank is one of the top stocks in Europe this morning, hitting its highest levels since early May.

Alas, they’ve still been a rather poor investment in the last decade - back in 2009 they changed hands at €40 each, rather than around €7.40 today.

Deutsche Bank shares rise

Shares in Deutsche Bank have risen at the start of trading in Frankfurt, up over 3% at €7.42,

Investors appear to welcome its plan to scale back investment banking, stop trading shares and create a new bad bank to handle its bad debts.

Instead of competing with Wall Street investment bank giants, Deutsche is now planning to focus on corporate banking, financing, foreign exchange, private banking and asset management.

The plan won’t be cheap, though. Deutsche expects to take around €3bn of upfront restructuring costs, which will create a net loss of €2.8bn for the current financial quarter. The total bill is expected to hit €7.4bn by 2022.

Updated

In Tokyo, Deutsche Bank staff were summoned to a meeting where senior managers told them the equities trading operation all across Asia would be shut, reports the Financial Times.

The bank’s human resources team started group sessions with affected employees immediately afterwards, with whole teams of equity traders in Tokyo and other Asian locations being dismissed.

The FT says:

When asked about the atmosphere in the office on Monday morning, a Singapore-based employee whose team had not been hit by the cuts said:

“The mood is always depressed in Deutsche. People know the bank is not doing well . . . It’s not like a party”.

Updated

Reuters: Deutsche Bank axes whole teams in Asia-Pacific

Whole teams in Deutsche Bank’s Asian operations have reportedly been told their positions are being eliminated, as the bank moves swiftly to start axing 18,000 jobs globally

Reuters is reporting that bankers in Sydney got the bad news today.

Deutsche Bank gave no geographic breakdown for the job cuts when it announced the plan on Sunday.

Bankers in Sydney seen leaving the lender’s offices on Monday confirmed they worked for Deutsche Bank and were being laid off, but declined to give their names as they were due to return later to sign redundancy packages.

One person with knowledge of the bank’s operations in Australia said its four-strong equity capital markets team was being let go, but that most of its mergers and acquisitions (M&A) team would not be immediately affected.

DB’s Hong Kong operations have also been hit:

In Hong Kong, a group of three upset-looking bank employees took a picture of themselves besides a large Deutsche Bank logo outside the lender’s office, hugging each other before hailing a waiting taxi.

One Hong Kong-based equities trader who had been laid off said the mood was “pretty gloomy” as people were called individually to meetings.

“(There are a) couple of rounds of chats with HR and then they give you this packet and you are out of the building,” the trader said.

Several workers were seen leaving the offices holding large envelopes with the bank’s logo.

“If you have a job for me please let me know. But do not ask questions,” said one who confirmed he was employed at Deutsche Bank, but declined to comment further.

Introduction: Deutsche Bank to cut 18,000 jobs

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.

It’s a dark day for staff at Deutsche Bank, after the banking giant announced plans to cut 18,000 jobs around the globe, or around a fifth of its workforce.

The axe is hovering over staff in the City of London, where Deutsche employs thousands of people, and in New York and in offices across the Asia-Pacific region. Reuters is reporting that ‘whole teams’ in some Asian operations have already been sent home today (more on that shortly).

The job cuts are part of a radical restructuring of ailing Deutsche Bank, which has suffered from weak profitability and a string of fines for misconduct.

Under the plan, it will cut back its investment banking operations, ending its equities trading business and shrinking its bond and rates trading operations. This will help reduce its headcount to around 74,000.

It is also spinning off around €74bn of under-performing loans into a new bad bank, as CEO Christian Sewing tries desperately to kickstart the company.

My colleague Simon Goodley reports:

Hundreds of City workers are fearing for their jobs after Deutsche Bank, the global bank that is one of the Square Mile’s largest employers, said it plans to axe 18,000 staff worldwide in the latest attempt to revitalise its reputation and business.

The layoffs, equivalent to 20% of the bank’s workforce, come after chief executive Christian Sewing flagged an extensive restructuring in May, when he promised shareholders “tough cutbacks” to the investment bank and that he would push ahead with a further €1bn (£880m) in cuts this year.

The pledge came after similar moves in 2018 that led to 6,000 job losses, and a failure to agree a merger with rival Commerzbank.

Also coming up today

Investors will also be digesting yesterday’s Greek general election, which saw the right-wing New Democracy party oust the incumbent left-wing Syriza party.

PM Alexis Tsipras has conceded, so ND’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis should be sworn in today.

The Turkish lira is also under pressure, after president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sacked the country’s central bank governor.

The sudden removal of Murat Cetinkaya is undermining confidence in the bank’s independence, given Erdoğan’s regular demands for lower interest rates. That’s sent the lira down 2% this morning.

The agenda

  • 7am BST: German industrial production and trade data
  • 9.30am BST: Sentix survey of eurozone investor confidence

Updated

 

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