By Eyk Henning
Germany's Deutsche Bank AG (DB) will review its business model
as a global investment and transaction bank with local
retail-banking operations next year, the co-chief executives Anshu
Jain and Jurgen Fitschen told German weekly Welt am Sonntag Sunday
in a joint interview.
"The bank has always made it clear that it will review its
strategy next year and might develop it further," Mr. Fitschen
said, adding that it remains to be seen what this means for
specific operations. According to media reports earlier this week,
the bank is weighing a sale of its retail unit Deutsche Postbank
AG, which it acquired in 2009.
A spokeswoman for the bank told The Wall Street Journal that
"speculations about the sale of business units including Postbank
are irresponsible," adding the lender is focusing on executing its
strategy dubbed "2015+."
Mr. Fitschen stressed that private-client activities are
essential for Deutsche Bank even though it is hard to achieve
attractive profits. But he conceded that "everything needs to meet
the test of whether it is [economically viable]. The business model
must be in the interest of clients, but also in the interest of our
shareholders."
While takeovers of retail-banking operations are currently not
on the agenda for Deutsche Bank according to Mr. Fitschen, the
lender is set to improve margins by cutting costs, which is
"inevitable."
Write to Eyk Henning at eyk.henning@wsj.com.
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