FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) has struck a deal with its German works council over closing about a quarter of branches in its home market, several people familiar with the matter said.
Germany's flagship lender has embarked on a deep strategic overhaul and cost-cutting program, announcing in 2015 that it would cut 9,000 staff, 4,000 of which in Germany.
The bulk of these job cuts will be related to shutting down about 200 of its 723 branches in Germany, the people said, adding that the details on the cuts may be announced as early as Thursday.
While Deutsche Bank is thinning out its network within large cities, it is stopping short of a broad pull-back from smaller towns, people familiar with the matter said.
Last month, Chief Executive John Cryan said that the bank had made good progress in talks with the German works council.
"It's taken an awful long time to get to agreement. And we're still not quite there yet, but I am pretty confident that within the next month or two, we'll have an agreement," he said at the time.
In other European countries, mainly Spain and Poland, Deutsche Bank has closed about 40 retail branches.