Deutsche Bank expands hiring ahead of expected investment banking turnaround in Asia
SINGAPORE – Deutsche Bank is selectively increasing headcount in divisions such as investment banking and private banking ahead of what it believes could be a rebound in those areas.
This comes four years after the German bank executed a major restructuring that saw it cut costs and hive off unproductive divisions to focus on four core divisions in 2019, president and chief financial officer James von Moltke told The Straits Times in a recent interview.
The move involved splitting corporate banking and investment banking into two separate business lines alongside private banking and asset management.
But Mr von Moltke admitted that the bank may have pulled back too much in some areas, and there was a need to re-establish these to maintain market position in what it had defined as core businesses.
With the current slump in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and capital market deal flows having slowed, the German giant now sees opportunities to hire good people to beef up its investment banking division.
This comes as other major lenders like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley laid off staff in their deal-making units, after over-expanding before the Covid-19 pandemic.
