By Morgan Winsor -
Deutsche Bank AG (DE:DBKGn), Germany’s biggest bank, announced Sunday several high-level management changes and anticipated restructuring plans to streamline its business. Deutsche Bank said its investment bank will be split in two, and its asset and wealth management division will be cleaved into separate units, CNBC reported.
Under new co-chief executive John Cryan, the banking giant said it will also dissolve its group executive committee, a body that includes the bank’s top executives as well as regional and other representatives, and place a representative of each of its four core operations on a newly created board. Meanwhile, 10 of the current 16 management board committees will be scrapped and several top managers will shift positions or leave.
At a meeting of the German lender’s directors in Frankfurt, Deutsche Bank said Sunday the changes are aimed "to reduce complexity of the bank's management structure, enabling it to better meet client demands and requirements of supervisory authorities,” the Associated Press reported.
As a result of the restructuring, Colin Fan, the investment-banking co-head responsible for securities trading, will resign Monday and Garth Ritchie, the current global equities head, will be promoted. Henry Ritchotte, the bank’s chief operating officer, will depart the management board and form a new digital bank for the company, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The changes marked the latest shake-up at Deutsche Bank since the arrival of Cryan, who took over July 1 after co-CEOs Anshu Jain and Juergen Fitschen announced their resignations. It was widely expected Cryan would move quickly to reorganize the bank since taking the reins after Jain left earlier this year. Fitschen will remain until May 2016 when Cryan becomes the bank’s sole CEO.
Deutsche Bank has been embroiled in investigations amid allegations it was one of the banks rigging global interest rate benchmark Libor, or the London interbank offered rate. The legal issues have dealt a blow to the company’s profits. Earlier this month, Deutsche Bank said it expects to report a third-quarter net loss of 6.2 billion euros ($7 billion) due to write-downs and litigation costs, the AP said.