Deutsche Bank to slash more than 7,000 jobs – business live

All the day’s economic and financial news, as German investment bank announces a wide-ranging restructuring that could hit the City hard

Deutsche to cut headcount from 97,000 to below 90,000
Jobs at risk at Postbank, the City, and the US
Bank employs 8,500 people in the UK
CEO: We must focus on what we do well
Move follow three years of losses

LIVE Updated

The headquarters of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, Germany. Photograph: Michael Probst/AP

Graeme Wearden

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9.10am BST 09:10

No wonder Deutsche’s shareholders are angry - the bank’s value has slumped by a third in the last year.

Deutsche Bank’s share price over the last year Photograph: Bloomberg TV

9.08am BST 09:08

Dr. Hans-Christoph Hirt of Hermes Investment Management, a Deutsche Bank shareholder, blames chairman Paul Achleitner for the company’s woes.

Hirt tells Bloomberg TV that Achleitner has failed in three ways:

Too much managerial change; with Deutsche Bank now on its fourth CEO under Achleitner
No strategy to create value
A lot of turnover on the supervisory board.

These are all important responsibilities for a chairman, Hirt says, adding:

In our opinion, he hasn’t done a particularly good job.

However, Hermes won’t support today’s no-confidence vote, as it believes Deutsche doesn’t need any more disruption.

We will give him one last warning - saying you need to do better, you are in the last-chance house.

Hermes Investment (@Hermesinvest)
Video: Dr. Hans-Christoph Hirt, Head of @HermesEOS, discusses #corpgov concerns at Deutsche Bank ahead of today's AGM in #Germany https://t.co/WvWkmCvW8p #DeutscheBank #banking pic.twitter.com/xl6BQSJoFE
May 24, 2018

8.33am BST 08:33

Protesters have gathered outside Deutsche Bank’s AGM in Frankfurt.

They are calling on the bank to “get out of coal, weapons and tax havens”, with a sign reading “Deutsche Bank: Ich krieg die Krise’ (literally,” I’m getting the crisis”).

Protestors demonstrate against the policy of Germany’s Deutsche Bank prior to the start of the bank’s annual shareholder meeting in Frankfurt, Germany, May 24, 2018. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach — Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

Updated at 8.51am BST

8.24am BST 08:24

Deutsche chairman faces no-confidence vote

Deutsche Bank supervisory board chairman Achleitner. Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

Angry investors will try to oust Deutsche Bank’s chairman, Paul Achleitner, at its AGM today.

Achleitner is under fire for failing to stop Deutsche’s track record of underperformance in recent years, and for a series of strategic zig-zags that have left shareholders dizzy.

He now faces a vote of no-confidence from investors who believe his time is up.

Achleitner made his name selling East German government assets following reunification in 1990. He has been chairman of Deutsche since 2012 - a time in which Deutsche has struggled to shake off the legacy of the financial crisis.

The New York Times explains:

Mr. Achleitner left Allianz in 2012 to become chairman of Deutsche Bank, overseeing the executives who run the company on a day-to-day basis.

Deutsche Bank had grave problems. The culture was toxic. Large swaths of the business were poorly managed. Risks were not controlled. The bank had a tendency to needlessly antagonize regulators. It was caught up in just about all of the industry’s worst scandals: rigging interest rates, selling toxic mortgages, laundering money, violating sanctions.

Rivals like UBS and Credit Suisse scaled back their investment banks in the wake of the financial crisis. But Deutsche Bank, with Mr. Achleitner’s backing, continued to try to play in the Wall Street big leagues.

Mr. Achleitner insisted that Europe needed a counterweight to the big American investment banks. “If we don’t watch out,” he said in an interview with a German magazine in May 2015, “we’ll have the same American dominance that we already have in the internet.”

8.11am BST 08:11

Shares in Deutsche Bank have risen 0.4% in early trading in Frankfurt, as investors react to today’s job cuts.

8.05am BST 08:05

Postbank and US operations in the firing line too

Postbank, which is Deutsche Bank’s consumer banking unit, faces heavy job losses under today’s restructuring plan.

Last night, the Financial Times reported that workers in the US and the City are also at risk:

The person familiar with the bank’s plans said that the 10,000 jobs included “a few thousand jobs” at Deutsche’s German retail division Postbank, which were already earmarked to be culled.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the plans on Wednesday.

Roughly half of the additional job cuts would be taking place in the group’s struggling investment bank, he added. “Most of the cuts will happen in the US, but London will see the axe too.”

Updated at 8.05am BST

8.01am BST 08:01

Deutsche is trying to convince investors that it’s serious about returning to profitability after three years of losses, says the AFP newswire.

It adds:

The bank said it would slash leverage exposure in the investment bank by 10 percent of “the €1,050bn of leverage exposure reported at the end of the first quarter of 2018.”

7.52am BST 07:52

Will City be badly hit?

A Deutsche Bank spokesperson says that today’s job cuts will affect ‘all regions’, but they won’t give a detailed breakdown.

However, it seems certain that the UK will be hit, as Deutsche’s biggest investment banking office is in the heart of London’s Square Mile.

Deutsche employs 8,500 people in the UK, making it one of the biggest employers in the City.

The bank says:

Deutsche Bank chooses to base its largest investment banking operations in the City of London, a centre of global flows of trade and wealth. We use this position as a global bank to keep our UK clients connected to markets, and help clients do business all over the world.

It also has offices in Birmingham and Bournemouth.

Updated at 8.00am BST

7.39am BST 07:39

Deutsche Bank to slash 'well over' 7,000 jobs

Germany’s Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.

Deutsche Bank has sent a shiver through the City by announcing that it plans to lay off thousands of staff worldwide.

German’s biggest bank plans to cut its headcount to ‘well below’ 90,000, from 97,000 today, as it shake up its corporate and investment banking operations.

It says:

The number of full-time equivalent positions is expected to fall from just over 97,000 currently to well below 90,000. The associated personnel reductions are underway.

The move follows rising investor anger over Deutsche’s performance - the bank has posted three annual losses in a row, and sacked CEO John Cryan last month.

Cryan’s successor, Christian Sewing, had pledged to cut back on risk operations and refocus on Europe - and he’s now wielding the axe.

In a statement, Sewing says:

“We remain committed to our Corporate & Investment Bank and our international presence, we are unwavering in that....

However, we must concentrate on what we truly do well.”

Deutsche’s corporate and investment bank will face the brunt of the restructuring. The wide-ranging cuts include 25% headcount reduction at the bank’s equities sales and trading business following a review of the business.

The announcement comes just a few hours before Deutsche faces investors at its annual general meeting on Thursday.

More details and reaction to follow....

Also coming up today:

New retail sales figures will show whether UK consumers hit the shops in April, as the cold snap ended. Economists predict that sales jumped by 0.8% during the month, after a 1.2% decline in March.

A weak reading, though, might weaken the pound and spark fresh concerns about the UK economy and consumer confidence.

The Bank of England will be hosting Markets Forum 2018 - a conference to discuss measures to stamp out misconduct and make the financial world fairer and more effective.