The Frankfurt-listed lender unveiled a raft of management changes today, including moves in and out of its wealth business.

Shares in Germany’s biggest bank rose by 3.54 per cent today as it announced a set of sweeping changes to its management structure, including the splitting of private client management into an independent unit. A number of top-level executives are leaving.

Michele Faissola, head of Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, will leave the bank after a transition period, Deutsche Bank said in a statement.

The Frankfurt-listed bank, which serves markets around the world, said it will “fundamentally change its group and leadership structure”.

Around midday today, shares in the bank were quoted at €26.89 ($30.40), up 3.68 per cent. The wider German equity market was up by just under 1.0 per cent.

Among the changes affecting Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management are that high net worth clients will now be served by Private Wealth Management, which will be run as an independent business unit within the private and business clients business division. Deutsche Asset Management will become a stand-alone business group and focus only on institutional clients and the funds business, the bank announced.

The bank has seen a number of high-level changes, as well as the impact of expensive litigation from a series of financial scandals. Co-chief executive Cryan was appointed in June this year to take over from co-chief executive Anshu Jain; the other co-CEO is Juergen Fitschen. Within weeks of Cryan's appointment, there was press speculation that a major management overhaul was on the cards. 

Among details of the changes, the corporate banking and securities business division will be split into two business divisions. Effective 1 January, 2016, a business division called corporate and investment banking will be created by combining the corporate finance business in CB&S and global transaction banking (GTB). CB&S’s sales and trading activities will be combined in a newly-created business division called global markets. The name “CB&S” will cease to exist, Deutsche Bank said.

All change, departures
The group executive committee will be abolished, as will ten of the current 16 management board committees. Effective from the start of January, 2016, all four core business divisions will be represented directly on the management board. A ten-person management board will be supplemented by four senior group directors. 

Effective January 1, 2016, Jeff Urwin, co-head of CB&S together with Colin Fan, will join the management board. Urwin will be responsible for Corporate & Investment Banking. As a result of this reorganization, Stefan Krause, a long-term management board member with responsibility for GTB and the non-core operations unit, will leave the board effective 31 October, 2015.

Werner Steinmüller will remain head of GTB, and will report to Urwin. He will be proposed for election to succeed Krause as chairman of the supervisory board of Postbank AG.

Colin Fan, currently co-Head of CB&S, will leave effective on 19 October. He will be succeeded by Garth Ritchie who will be responsible for global markets on the management board at the start of January, 2016. Ritchie is currently head of equities. 

Quintin Price, most recently global executive committee member and head of Alpha strategies at BlackRock, will take on management board responsibility for Deutsche Asset Management from 1 January. Michele Faissola, head of Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, will leave the bank after a transition period. 

Going forward, Christian Sewing, head of private & business clients, will also assume responsibility for high net worth clients on the management board. Fabrizio Campelli, currently head of group strategy, will run this business and will report to Sewing. 

Stephan Leithner has asked to resign from the management board because he wants to assume a new role in the private equity industry next year, the bank said. Leithner is CEO Europe and is responsible for human resources, government and regulatory affair, and anti-financial crime on the management board.

Krause and Leithner´s management board responsibilities will be divided as follows:

Sylvie Matherat, head of government and regulatory affairs at Deutsche Bank and a former member of the board of directors of Banque de France, will become chief regulatory officer and assume management board responsibilty for regulation, compliance and anti-financial crime. The senior group director Nadine Faruque, who is global head of compliance, will report to Matherat.

Karl von Rohr, currently chief operating officer for global regional management, will become chief administrative officer and assume management board responsibility for corporate governance, human resources, and legal. In his new position, he will also become labour relations director of Deutsche Bank. Legal was represented on the management board by co-chief executive John Cryan. 

Cryan will assume management board responsibility for the NCOU.

Separately, Kim Hammonds, currently global chief information officer and co-head of group technology and operations at Deutsche Bank and formerly chief information officer of Boeing, will become chief operating officer.

Hammonds will start her role as senior group director at the beginning of next year. She is expected to join the management board in no later than one year. 
 

Henry Ritchotte, currently COO, will leave the management board at year end and set up a new digital bank for Deutsche Bank. 

In addition to Faruque and Hammonds, Jacques Brand will become senior group director reporting to the Co-CEOs John Cryan and Jürgen Fitschen, effective 1 November, 2015. Brand is currently CEO for North America and will become chairman of the newly-created intermediate holding company for the US business. Fischen will remain responsible for global regional management.

As of 1 April, 2016, Jörg Eigendorf, currently head of the investigative team and member of the editors team at media group Welt/N24, will become the new head of communications and senior group director. He will report to the co-CEOs Cryan and Fitschen. He will take over this function from Thorsten Strauss, currently global head of communications, CSR & Public Affairs and member of the management committee for Germany. Strauss will assume global responsibility for the bank’s culture, art, and sports activities, including its extensive art collection. 

"Deutsche Bank rarely underwent such a fundamental reorganization in its history. This also requires tough decisions. I would like to stress that all parties involved have tried to achieve the best possible outcomes for Deutsche Bank, having set aside personal interests. For this, and for their contributions in the past years, we would like to thank those executives leaving the company,” Paul Achleitner, supervisory board chairman, said.

Achleitner continued: “In his role as CFO from 2008 until 2015, Stefan Krause made a significant contribution to weathering the peak phase of the financial crisis. He also served the bank well during the complex decision making processes which led to Strategy 2020. In their roles as Head of Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management and Co-Head of Corporate Banking & Securities, Michele Faissola and Colin Fan have laid the foundations for the bank’s successful future in those important business divisions.” 

Achletner said the bank regretted Leithner’s request to resign, but accepts that he wants to use his client and transaction know-how in the private equity industry.