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Dozens of employees at Deutsche Bank's offices walked in to work on Monday morning to discover their jobs were gone.

About 50 of the German bank's Australian staff were made redundant as part of a huge global downsizing that let go about 18,000 workers this week.

Tearful bankers were seen walking out of the company's Hunter Street headquarters in the CBD for the last time.

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Employees at Deutsche Bank's Sydney office looked downcast on Tuesday after about 50 of their colleagues were summarily laid off the previous day

This worker learned on Monday that many of her colleagues were made redundant as part of a huge global downsizing that let go about 18,000 workers this week

Some carried envelopes with their redundancy notices after being told to clean out their desks in just hours. 

More cuts took place at the bank's Melbourne and Perth offices, though it was not clear how many felt the axe from each city. 

'They fired the equities team yesterday. There was a lot of heartache and tears,' a Sydney source told Daily Mail Australia.

'About 50 or so people are out of a job and many of them have families to support.' 

Staff got an email at 1am telling them to attend a meeting at 8am just seven hours later. Security patrolled the entrance and nearby streets as laid off staff left.

Deutsche Bank is believed to be almost entirely pulling out of the Australian equity sales and trading market, 27 years after arriving in the country. 

There could be more cuts to come in the fixed income sales and trading teams with the bank alluding to 'withdrawing capital' from those sections.

'I personally greatly regret the impact this will have on some of you,' global chief executive Christian Sewing wrote in an email to staff.

'In the long-term interests of our bank, however, we have no choice other than to approach this transformation decisively.' 

Australian equities boss Glenn Morgan told clients the bank would 'aim to minimise any disruption to you and ensure that we maintain our regulatory and market obligations'.

The cavernous lobby of the bank's Sydney headquarters was ominously empty on Tuesday after dozens of staff were laid off

Mr Morgan and other senior staff earlier approached investment bank Wilsons in a failed attempt to move 20 equities workers en masse, according to the AFR. 

Daily Mail Australia contact the bank's Australian head office to confirm the scale of the job losses.

Staff at Deutsche Bank's London office who were told to clear their desks by 11am hit the nearest pub holding their white redundancy envelopes.

Few staff wanted to speak outside the bank's London office, but trade was picking up at the nearby Balls Brothers pub, with many of the employees thought to be making their way to the bar from the office.

One fund manager who was drinking bubbly inside the bar with his friends said they were not from Deutsche, adding: 'We are celebrating that we are not at Deutsche.'

One Deutsche employee in London said: 'I was terminated this morning. There was a very quick meeting and that was it,' said an IT worker leaving Deutsche Bank's London office this morning.

'I got laid off, where else would I go?' said one equity sales staff member in London, who had headed to nearby pub. 

The company will close its lossmaking equities trading business and cut some jobs to shrink its bond and rates trading operations. 

A city worker outside Balls Brothers wine bar, Central London, with a white envelope containing what is believed to be a redundancy notice from Deutsche Bank. The bank has started a cull of 18,000 jobs

A number of people can be seen leaving 60 Wall Street Deutch Bank with white envelopes which are reported to be their redundancy notices

People exit Deutsche Bank's Manhattan headquarters with some of their belongings following news that the global banking giant will be letting go of thousands of employees due to a major restructuring at the German bank

A man carries a box as leaves from the offices of German firm Deutsche Bank in London today

City workers hug outside Balls Brothers wine bar near Deutsche's officers, where trade was picking up this afternoon amid the job cuts. It is unclear if those pictured were employees of the bank 

Deutsche Bank, which was the first major finance firm to suggest it could leave the UK and move 4,000 jobs out of the country in the event of Brexit, refused to tell MailOnline how many staff in London would be axed.

Sources have estimated it could be well over 3,000 according to eFinancial News, while an IT contractor at the London office said this morning as news broke of the redundancies in London that 100 people had been made redundant from a single floor. 

A wave of job cuts now looks set to hit Frankfurt, where recent changes in labour law making it easier to fire people earning €234,000 (AU$377,000) could encourage the bank to cut senior staff. 

Yesterday, the Frankfurt-headquartered bank said the mass layoffs would reduce its annual costs by $9.7 billion. 

The 91,500 worldwide employees are set to be cut by just over 20 per cent, to 74,000, in an unprecedented round of departures for Deutsche.  

The firm sacked workers in Sydney, Hong Kong and across the Asia-Pacific region on Monday morning as it launched one of the biggest restructurings of its investment bank since the financial crash.

Meanwhile, an equities professional at the firm's New York office told eFinancial News: '9.30am is when most people in my division have been asked to report to the auditorium to be fired.'  

A man leaves the Deutsche Bank building in Central London with some belongings today

A City worker outside Balls Brothers wine bar holding a white envelope, while speaking to a colleague 

As many were seen leaving the London office with bags, some employees were pictured receiving in a huge delivery of 30 large pizzas at lunchtime from a motorcyclist.

One employee told the Financial Times: 'This is really sad what is going on right now in the bank, but I guess from top management's point of view that is what is needed to be done.' 

Staff in London were reportedly told just hours after Deutsche Bank announced the overhaul that they had until 11am to pack up their belongings.

One man, who was told his door pass would stop working in a few hours, told The Telegraph's banking editor Lucy Burton: 'I'm trying to get my head straight'.

Deutsche has insisted it will not fire its retail employees in Germany - where employment laws are far more rigid - against their will until mid-2021. 

A staff member takes in pizza boxes at the London office of Deutsche Bank at lunchtime today

A staff member receives a pizza delivery as Deutsche Bank confirmed plans to cut 18,000 jobs

Why is Deutsche Bank struggling? How the latest turmoil comes after years of pain for the institution and its investors 

By Simon Lambert for This Is Money  

Deutsche Bank's massive cuts revealed today are the culmination of many years of pain for the bank and its investors.

After riding the financial boom years from 1999 to 2007 – as it planned to become the Goldman Sachs of Europe - Deutsche Bank has largely suffered ever since the financial crisis hit.

The aftermath of the crisis saw much tougher rules brought in for banks, requiring them to hold more capital, rely less on debt and play things safer, leaving Deutsche struggling.

People hug outside the Balls Brothers bar, where some Deutsche Bank workers were heading this afternoon. It is unclear if the people pictured were employed by the bank 

Deutsche had expanded dramatically after buying US institution Bankers Trust in 1999, growing its investment banking operation substantially and was for a short period in 2007 considered the world's largest bank.

However, much of that expansion was debt-fuelled leaving Deutsche as also the world's most leveraged bank.

Deutsche was not laid as low by bad bets during the financial crisis as many of its giant rivals, but it was hit hard as regulators reacted to the crunch by demanding that banks held more capital. Meanwhile, investors shied away from the lucrative but risky trades that had made global mega-banks so much money.

Deutsche Bank has had to repeatedly raise money from investors to meet capital requirements, with £30billion of equity raised over the past ten years, and its share price has sunk from almost €110 at its peak to about €7.

After the financial crisis, the bank scaled up its equity trading division in an attempt to make more money, but that has not paid off and now it will bear the brunt of the cuts.

Along the way there has been a €2.5billion Libor scandal fine – levied for rigging the key global interest rate - and a €7.2billion fine for mis-selling US mortgage backed securities.

Deutsche Bank shares lost more than half their value in 2018 and it has only made one annual profit in the last four years, in 2018.

A proposed merger with fellow German lender Commerzbank collapsed earlier this year and while the scale of today's cuts comes as a surprise – with 18,000 jobs hacked from its 91,500-strong workforce - the arrival of a radical plan was not.

Restructuring costs of €3billion will push Deutsche Bank to a €2.8billion loss for the second quarter of 2019, while a bad bank with €74billion of legacy business held in it aims to distance the bank from the past.

Deutsche will ask to be allowed a temporarily lower level of core tier 1 capital – a key financial health measure – so that it can fund the €7.4billion restructuring without calling on investors for more cash.

Boss Christian Sewing hopes this plan will call time on the era when Deutsche tried to crack Wall Street, investors will hope it means it finally starts making more money and increases profit margins, and regulators will hope it puts one of the world's famous banks on a better financial footing. 

Despite job losses in London, the bank confirmed it still intended to move into its HQ to the city's Moorgate area once the current development was finished in 2023. 

In London, the Guardian reported how 100 people had been made redundant on the fourth floor while some members of staff were seen leaving the office in tears. 

Chief executive Christian Sewing, who makes almost A$11 million a year in his role, said the job cuts 'have been the most difficult and painful part of our decision making' as 'people and their fates are very important to us'.  

The cut backs from the bank - which paid billions in fines and settlements after the 2008 financial crash, when when Lehman Brothers failed - comes after concerns the UK economy is at a standstill. 

Data firm Markit's PMI tracks the private sector and reported shrinking business activity in June.

Chris Williamson, economist at IHS Markit, told The Financial Times: 'The latest downturn differs from that seen in 2016 as it has followed a gradual weakening in the rate of economic growth rather than being a sudden and brief collapse in output after the 'shock' referendum result.' 

People walk outside the London office of Deutsche Bank which has confirmed plans to cut jobs

Deutsche Bank said today that it would drop its stock sales and trading unit as part of a plan to exit more volatile investment banking activities.

It said it would cut roughly a quarter of its total cost base through steps such as dropping the investment bank's stock-trading business.

It would also slim down its division focused on fixed-income investments.

The bank would not say where the cuts would fall, but many of its investment banking activities are carried out in Wall Street and London. 

It will also slim down its division focused on fixed-income investments. By doing that, the bank is to focus on areas with steadier earnings such as serving corporate customers.

The bank would also create a separate unit to dispose of investments that are less profitable or no longer fit its strategy. 

The bank said it did not expect to have to raise additional capital from shareholders. 

Mr Sewing said: 'Today we have announced the most fundamental transformation of Deutsche Bank in decades. 

'We are tackling what is necessary to unleash our true potential: our business model, costs, capital and the management team. 

'We are building on our strengths. This is a restart for Deutsche Bank – for the long-term benefit of our clients, employees, investors and society.' 

The move follows the failure of merger talks with German rival Commerzbank.

Deutsche Bank said the combination would not make business sense, but that left open the question of what strategy the bank could pursue to make its business leaner and more profitable.

For years, Deutsche Bank has struggled with regulatory penalties and fines, weak profits, high costs and a falling share price. 

The bank went three straight years without turning an annual profit before recording positive earnings for 2018. 

A man walks into a Deutsche Bank office in London, where staff were today told to clear their desks

CEO Christian Sewing took over last year and promised faster restructuring after predecessor John Cryan was perceived to have moved too slowly to restructure the bank.

The bank paid billions in fines and settlements related to behavior before and after the global financial crisis, including a US$7.2 billion settlement in 2017 with the Justice Department over selling bonds based on mortgages to people with shaky credit. 

But that hasn't ended the negative headlines. Two congressional committees have subpoenaed Deutsche Bank documents as part their investigations into President Donald Trump and his company. 

Deutsche Bank was one of the few banks willing to lend to Trump after a series of corporate bankruptcies and defaults starting in the early 1990s.

Trump had sued Deutsche Bank to stop the subpoenas, but a judge in May ruled against the president.

People walk past a Deutsche Bank office in London this morning following news of job losses

CEO Christian Sewing said that the bank aims to turn even or break a profit by 2020, and predicts 6billion euros ($6.7billion) in pretax profits by 2022