Personnel rogue at Deutsche Bank: CEO Christian Sewing hands over responsibility for corporate banking and investment banking to Fabrizio Campelli. But that is by no means the only change.
Deutsche Bank is restructuring its board of directors. Fabrizio Campelli will be the new head of the investment bank and corporate bank. There had been speculation about his calling for this job in the past few days. He is taking over the two central areas for corporate customers from CEO Christian Sewing. In return, the CEO will take care of personnel development and real estate management in the future. Sewing’s contract was also extended to April 2026.
Campelli has been a board member of Deutsche Bank since 2019. Prior to that, he had been in charge of the bank’s wealth clients business since 2015. The manager with a British and Italian passport has worked for the financial institution in various positions since 2004. Previously worked for the consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
The fact that Sewing is giving up the investment bank and the corporate bank should ensure satisfaction among the banking supervisors. In the past, they had criticized the accumulation of offices with the CEO of Deutsche Bank. Sewing took over the two departments himself in 2019 when the bank announced its radical restructuring. In the course of this, the corporate bank was created, and the investment banking should be properly trimmed. In addition, the bank decided at the time to withdraw from stock trading.
Corona crisis drives investment banking division
Sewing’s renovation plans are now bearing fruit. For the pandemic year 2020, Deutsche Bank was able to record a profit for the first time in a long time. In particular, the investment banking division, which was much criticized in the past, generated momentum and generated pre-tax profits of around 3.2 billion euros. Revenues in the division, which is led by Ram Nayak (bond trading) and Mark Fedorcik (debt and equity operations), increased by around a third. How sustainable this growth will be due to the special economic situation caused by the corona remains to be seen.
The corporate bank, which is operationally headed by Stefan Hoops and includes transaction banking and corporate banking, had a harder time. In the past year, the corporate bank’s income fell by 2 percent, but after adjusting for exchange rate effects remained at the previous year’s level. The pre-tax profit was 561 million euros. It is unclear how the further development of the corona pandemic will affect the numbers in the corporate customer area. Due to the high volatility in investment banking, Deutsche Bank wants to focus more on this business area as part of the new strategy.
Rebecca Short rises to the board
The new division of responsibilities between Sewing and Campelli is by no means the only innovation on the board of Deutsche Bank. The transformation department, for which Campelli was previously responsible, will be taken over by the previous head of financial planning and control, Rebecca Short, who will rise from the Group Management Committee (GMC) to the Executive Board. She will also take over the purchasing department, which was previously under the COO, and will be responsible for the Capital Release Unit – in other words, Deutsche Bank’s bad bank.
The previous Chief Operating Officer, Frank Kuhnke, will leave the bank as part of the restructuring. Most of his duties are taken over by Bernd Leukert as the Board Member for Technology, Data and Innovation. Other activities, on the other hand, are distributed among the other board members, such as company organization.
In addition, the first change in the board of directors for 2022 has already been decided. Stuart Lewis, Chief Risk Officer, will step down from the bank next year. A decision on his successor has not yet been made. Board Member for Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Stefan Simon, will take over the important areas of compliance and the fight against financial crime from May. The aim is to bundle those areas that are “particularly marked by legal requirements and close exchange with the supervisory authorities,” the bank announced.
All changes in the board of directors of Deutsche Bank will take effect on May 1st. Chairman of the Supervisory Board Paul Achleitner sees the bank now well equipped for its next phase of transformation. In addition, he hopes that the reorganization will give Sewing more freedom to “concentrate on cross-departmental issues such as customer focus, sustainability and the control environment”.
