The embattled bank will lay off 18,000 workers amid a “radical transformation.”
Topline: Deutsche Bank workers were photographed Monday leaving the bank’s 60 Wall Street location clutching white envelopes widely believed to contain severance packages as part of a restructuring designed to eliminate 18,000 roles by 2022.
- London, Asia, and Australia were besieged by Monday layoffs as well, with the Guardian reporting U.K. workers in tears leaving the building, bags of belongings in hand.
- Deutsche Bank announced a “radical transformation” in a Sunday press release, with the promise of “radically transforming its business model to become more profitable, improve shareholder returns and drive long-term growth,” as well as “significantly downsize its investment bank” and “exit its equity sales and trading business.”
- Prior to Sunday’s announcement, Deutsche Bank struggled for years with “regulatory penalties and fines, high costs, weak profits, and a low share price,” and did not turn a profit from 2015 through 2017, according to the Associated Press.
- Analysts called the restructuring “optimistic,” “very deep,” “challenging,” “radical,” and “surprising,” despite the announcement’s significant foreshadowing.
- Shares of the bank were down 6% Monday after losing gains made Friday as markets anticipated the restructuring announcement.
Two workers exit Deutsche Bank's 60 Wall Street office clutching white envelopes reported to contain ... [+]
Two women exit the Deutsche Bank Wall Street office with personal belongings and the white envelopes ... [+]
Key background: In addition to its regulatory and business model woes, Deutsche Bank paid a $7.2 billion settlement in 2017 to the Justice Department for its role in the global financial crisis, specifically for its sale of bonds tied to mortgages sold to homeowners with weak credit histories. The Frankfurt-headquartered bank also has unsavory ties to President Trump, with two congressional subpoenas issued for investigations related to loans made to him after a series of corporate bankruptcies and defaults in the 1990s.
Tangent: Trump and Deutsche Bank’s relationship stretches back over two decades, with the bank loaning the president nearly $2 billion dollars (beginning after Trump’s bankruptcies, which cost other financial institutions hundreds of millions), according to the New York Times. In addition to the two congressional subpoenas related to Trump’s financial records with Deutsche Bank, New York attorney general Letitia James likewise subpoenaed the bank for the president’s records. On top of the subpoenas, whistleblower allegations surfaced last month that Deutsche Bank buried "suspicious activity" from accounts associated with Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and White House senior adviser. Analysts agree the multiple simultaneous investigations impeded Deutsche Bank's recovery ability from the global financial crisis, according to the Washington Post.
