(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) AG’s job cuts across the U.S. will probably go far beyond equities and interest-rate derivatives trading, which have been marked as major targets, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The German lender plans to start informing U.S. workers of the reductions beginning Monday provided its restructuring plan is adopted over the weekend, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. They didn’t give further details on which businesses may be affected.
Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing is poised to adopt a sweeping restructuring plan focused on as many as 20,000 job cuts worldwide and a pullback from large areas of investment banking, the people have said. The bank may shutter U.S. equities trading entirely and a number of senior executives including U.S. chief Tom Patrick are leaving the bank, they said. The bank hasn’t yet detailed the cuts or how they’ll be distributed.
A Deutsche Bank spokesman declined to comment.
Germany’s largest lender employed 9,253 people in the U.S. at the end of 2018, down more than 10% on the previous year on the back of a restructuring Sewing introduced a little more than a year ago. Though the regional unit made a small profit last year, it racked up billions of dollars in losses in the preceding years. It has also been repeatedly under fire from U.S. regulators even though it recently passed the Fed’s stress test.
European operations are expected to fare much better. Deutsche Bank’s Nordic region chief Jan Olsson predicted that the overhaul will have little impact on the businesses he oversees. The area is “an integral part of the strategy at Deutsche Bank,” he said in an interview on Thursday.
Sewing has repeatedly said that Deutsche Bank remains committed to its U.S. presence, as the company wants to ensure it can continue to cater to the capital markets needs of large European companies. The lender may finalize the restructuring when the board meets this weekend.
(Updates with Nordic region CEO in sixth paragraph.)
