Deutsche Bank’s new boss Christian Sewing tells employees “tough decisions” have to be taken as he eyes investment banking review
Deutsche Bank’s new boss Christian Sewing has told employees the challenge ahead “is a big one” with tight time pressure and high expectations from clients, investors and regulators alike.
In a letter to the firm’s workers published on the company’s site today, Sewing said to get the bank profitable again, he will “take tough decisions and execute them”.
He intends to “thoroughly analyse” how Deutsche Bank wants to position its investment bank.
Read more: Christian Sewing confirmed as new Deutsche Bank head
Sewing wrote:
It does not need saying that we want to and have to become profitable again. And for that we need to be successful, that’s our lifeline.
In sharp contradiction though is how we missed some of our targets for costs and revenues. There may have been good reasons in some cases. But it was damaging for our bank.
The new leadership team will not accept this anymore. We’ll have to take tough decisions and execute them.
After a meeting of the German lender’s supervisory board, Sewing was confirmed as the new chief executive yesterday, replacing John Cryan.
The bank had said it would “take a decision” on the future of the chief executive on a call led by the board’s chair, Paul Achleitner.
The call came following the bank’s third consecutive year of losses in 2017 since Cryan took over in 2015.
Sewing said he will be exploring how Deutsche Bank wants to position its investment bank in a tricky market environment, citing the need to further adapt its revenue, cost and capital structure.
“The priority is to leverage our strengths and to allocate our investments accordingly,” he wrote. “And at the same time we will look to free up capacity for growth by pulling back from those areas where we are not sufficiently profitable.”
An early priority for the bank will be focusing “less on ourselves and more on our clients”, Sewing said, adding that Deutsche Bank’s approach should be to offer customers convincing solutions, not just products.
Sewing said:
It is also clear that there is no such thing as a free lunch. We will have to fight to succeed and my team and I are ready to do so. Because it’s worth it! It’s time to finally deliver to our full potential.
Read more: Deutsche Bank: Cryan finds it tough at the top of Germany’s totemic lender