Deutsche Bank AG

Company Profile

Deutsche Bank provides retail and private banking, corporate and transaction banking, lending, asset and wealth management products and services as well as focused investment banking to private individuals, small and medium-sized companies, corporations, governments and institutional investors.

With roots in Germany and now with offices around the world, including in key private banking hotspots such as Switzerland, Luxembourg, the Channel Islands, the Cayman Islands and Dubai, the Private Bank is one of four pillars of Deutsche Bank Group, along with the Corporate Bank, the Investment Bank and DWS, its asset management unit. 

The Private Bank, which has more than €540 billion in assets under management as of 30 June 2023, is organised along two businesses: Private Bank Germany (via the Deutsche Bank and Postbank brands) and International Private Bank. It serves millions of individuals, families and growing businesses in Germany, Belgium, India, Italy and Spain, as well as HNW and UHNW clients worldwide.

History

Deutsche Bank was founded in Berlin in 1870 with an emphasis on foreign business and facilitating trade between Germany, other European countries and overseas markets. Between 1871 and 1873 five branches were opened: in Bremen, Shanghai, Yokohama, Hamburg and London. 

The outbreak of the First World War forced Deutsche Bank to focus on domestic activities, and it expanded in Germany via mergers with regional banks such as Bergisch Märkische Bank, Schlesischer Bankverein, Norddeutsche Creditanstalt, Hannoversche Bank, Braunschweiger Privatbank and Privatbank zu Gotha among others.

This period of consolidation peaked in 1929 when Deutsche Bank merged with DiscontoGesellschaft, forming Germany’s largest bank. Following the Second World War, in which it profited from and facilitated the activities of the Nazi party, Deutsche Bank was broken up into 10 banks, with a re-merger in 1957 creating Deutsche Bank AG, registered in Frankfurt. At the end of the 1950s, the bank branched out into general retail banking, with the number of private clients increasing. 

In the 1970s the bank expanded its global presence, acquiring major banks in Italy, Spain, the UK and the US. By 1979 it had branches in London, Tokyo, Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, New York, Hong Kong, Milan and Madrid. In the 1980s it expanded into 12 additional countries in the Asia Pacific region, and in Brazil, Canada, Portugal and the Netherlands.

Starting with the acquisition of the UK merchant bank Morgan Grenfell in 1989, a period of global expansion culminated in the acquisition of the New York investment bank Bankers Trust in 1999, and Deutsche Bank was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001.

In the wake of the global financial crisis, Deutsche Bank reported a quarterly loss for the first time in five years in the first quarter of 2008. In 2016 and 2017 the bank reached a $7.2 billion settlement with the US Department of Justice in connection with the mis-selling of mortgage securities in the US leading up to that crisis. 

In 2018, DB Privat- und Firmenkundenbank AG was created from the merger of Postbank and Deutsche Bank’s private and commercial clients business, creating Germany’s largest private and commercial banking business, serving more than 20 million private clients and one million business and corporate clients. It later merged with Deutsche Bank AG in May 2020.

Deutsche Bank announced in 2019 it would combine its transaction banking unit and its German business serving corporate clients into a corporate bank division. It also exited the equity sales and trading business and reduced its fixed-income sales and trading business. In 2020 it combined its private and commercial business with the wider wealth management group to create the International Private Bank. 

A new organisational structure as of 2023 is designed to bring all private banking and wealth management services together internally under one roof. The single, global entity has five coverage areas:

• Wealth management and private banking Germany (HNW and UHNW domestic clients)
• Personal banking Germany
• Emerging markets: Asia, MEA, Latin America
• Central Europe and the US: 20 markets with regional hubs in the US, UK, Luxembourg and Switzerland
• Italy, Spain and Belgium

Senior leadership

Group CEO: Christian Sewing

Chief Financial Officer and Head of Asset Management: James von Moltke

Head of Corporate Bank and Investment Bank: Fabrizio Campelli

CEO of Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa: Alexander von zur Muehlen

Head of Private Bank: Claudio de Sanctis

Chief Operating Officer: Rebecca Short

Chief Administrative Officer and Head of Americas: Stefan Simon

Head of Private Bank Emerging Markets: Marco Pagliara 

Head of Private Bank Germany: Lars Stoy

Private client services

Wealth management

Services to preserve and enhance wealth include:

• Estate and trust planning, including complex wealth solutions and cross-border considerations; tax and legal considerations; intergenerational wealth transfer; and succession planning
• Philanthropic advisory, from the initial formation of new charitable foundations to advising on investments and long-term planning. Comprehensive guidance for existing charitable foundations and donor-advised funds
• Life insurance solutions via independent providers, including term life insurance, survivorship life insurance, private placement life insurance and universal life insurance
• Pre-exit planning, including pre-transaction wealth planning, and cash and investment management post-sale

Investment management

With a blend of core discretionary solutions and advisory solutions, investment management advice spans the full range of asset classes and includes:

• Discretionary portfolio management: more than 160 investment professionals around the world oversee €50 billion (as of 28 February 2020)
• Capital markets: access to capital and liquidity resources, global opportunities and structuring pay-offs in four main asset classes: fixed income, equities, foreign exchange and commodities
• Fund solutions: including in private credit, real estate and infrastructure, as well as liquid alternatives, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds
• Currency and deposit services: to serve sophisticated multi-currency needs
• Strategic asset allocation investing
• ESG investing in equities, fixed income, funds or alternatives via exclusionary screening, positive screening, thematic investments or impact investments

Financing solutions

For investing in capital markets, real estate, lifestyle assets or any other commercial or business asset, tailored financing solutions include:

• Liquid asset financing: structuring loans against less liquid assets, such as real estate, private aircraft, corporate investments or fine art
• Real estate financing: commercial and residential
• Equity stake financing: secure financing against concentrated single-stock positions without having to liquidate them.
• Private aircraft financing: including older private aircraft
• Structured financing solutions: to secure financing against a wide range of collateral, or a combination of different types
• Fine art lending: working with UHNWIs to structure and procure loans and asset financing for art works and collections

Family office services

Working with UHNW families across the world, Deutsche Bank is able to tailor bespoke solutions to meet the full gamut of wealth and investment management needs, from cash and portfolio management, extensive financing capabilities and access to investment banking, to treasury management, trading and hedging, structured credit and capital markets. 

Locations

United States

Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; Wilmington, DE; Jacksonville, FL

EMEA

Austria (Vienna); Bahrain (Manama); Belgium (Brussels); France (Paris); Germany (Arnsberg, Augsburg, Berlin, Bielefeld, Braunschweig, Bremen, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Essen, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Gummersbach, Hamburg, Hanover, Karlsruhe, Kempten, Kiel, Koln, Konstanz, Leipzig, Lippstadt, Lubeck, Mainz, Mannheim, Munich, Munster, Nuremberg, Osnabruck, Regensburg, Saarbrucken, Siegen, Stuttgart, Trier, Ulm, Wiesbaden, Wuppertal, Wurzburg); Israel (Tel Aviv); Italy (Bari, Bologna, Brescia, Como, Florence, Genoa, Lecco, Milan, Naples, Padua, Rome, Turin, Monza); Luxembourg; Netherlands (Amsterdam); Saudi Arabia (Riyadh); South Africa (Johannesburg); Spain (Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Zaragoza); Sweden (Stockholm); Switzerland (Geneva, Zurich); UAE (Dubai); UK (London)

Asia Pacific

China (Beijing, Shanghai); Hong Kong; India (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Ludhiana, Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune); Singapore