Deutsche Bank chief Sewing prepared to give up investment bank role
Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing could give up his role overseeing the investment bank in a move likely to reassure regulators, a source said on Friday.
The anonymous source said Sewing never intended to permanently keep the role since he added to his duties in a management overhaul in 2019.
German business newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Friday that there is movement on the topic of Sewing’s role.
Germany’s biggest bank is one of only a few in the world to assign day-to-day oversight of investment banking to its chief executive. At most banks, other board members oversee the division.
The development comes a fortnight after Deutsche announced that Sewing had received a 46 per cent pay rise in 2020 to $8.8m as the bank revelled in a return to profit.
The investment bank is the German lender’s main profit driver, but also represents risk for a bank that is deemed systematically important for the functioning on the global financial system.
Media reports in January said that Sewing was under pressure from regulators to scrap oversight of the bank, amid concerns that his workload could leave the lender open to operational hazards.