“CNBC – Deutsche Bank tapped Christian Sewing to be its new chief executive, the bank announced on Sunday, confirming widespread speculation that John Cryan would be replaced.”
So, a quick update on our friend, John Cryan. As I wrote a little over a week ago, there was no doubt that he would be asked to take a long walk off a short pier once shareholders started putting calls in directly to the Board. So while that was a foregone conclusion, what wasn’t as clear was who would succeed him. Last night we got our answer in the 47 year old Deutsche Bank lifer, Christian Sewing. If you thought banking in Frankfurt couldn’t become even more boring, you’d be wrong, as Sewing is currently DB’s retail banking CEO and has a background in risk management and audit. It seems like the Board is set on simplifying DB’s complex operations and returning it to a more traditional banking model, which doesn’t bode well for any of our friends at 60 Wall Street.
While Cryan stunk at his job, Christian Sewing isn’t going to swoop in and save DB from its mistakes overnight. He’ll likely look to begin a longer term process of shedding some of the bank’s “flashier” assets / businesses, taking a deep dive into the bank’s book of business and assessing how to prepare for a future focused on retail and commercial banking – which will inevitably result in further dings to DB’s reputation and prestige in the marketplace. It hasn’t been a fun few years to be a DB employee and it doesn’t seem like it’ll be better any time soon.