Monday, 9 February 2009

Deutsche Bank lays off staff

Deutsche Bank’s wealth management arm on Friday laid off at least 50 staff in Singapore and Hong Kong as earnings from private banking plunged, two sources familiar with the situation said.

1 comment:

Guanyu said...

Deutsche Bank lays off staff

Reuters
9 February 2009

Deutsche Bank’s wealth management arm on Friday laid off at least 50 staff in Singapore and Hong Kong as earnings from private banking plunged, two sources familiar with the situation said.

The first source, a banker in the German lender’s Singapore office, said around 50 people in the city-state had lost their jobs, while the second source, who is familiar with the situation, said the cull affected over 70 bankers in Singapore and Hong Kong.

More cuts are expected today, the first source said, while the second said those affected included team leaders and relationship managers.

Deutsche Bank’s Hong Kong-based Asia spokesman Michael West declined comment.

The job losses at Deutsche are a reflection of an industry-wide slowdown in the private banking business in Asia, which just two years ago saw rampant job-hopping and poaching as global banks tried to aggressively expand in the region.

Deutsche embarked on a hiring spree in Asia in early 2007 after it hired Ravi Raju from Citigroup as its new head of private wealth management in Asia Pacific.

Soon after Mr. Raju came on board, Deutsche hired 18 private bankers from Citigroup.

Deutsche made a net loss of almost 4 billion euros (S$7.7 billion), compared with a 6.5 billion euro profit in 2007, amid heavy writedowns and as revenues from trading of debt and other products shrivelled from 8.4 billion euros to 124 million euros.

The German bank’s net revenue from its private clients and asset management unit fell 22 per cent to 2 billion euros.

Deutsche said both the asset management and private wealth business divisions were significantly hit by the negative market developments in the fourth quarter of 2008.