Finance Monthly - November 2021 Edition

Fron t Cove r Fea t ur e 12 Finance Monthly. James, why did you join Deutsche Bank? Throughout my professional career, I have been passionate about helping to lead organisations through times of change. As Treasurer of Citigroup, for example, with responsibility for capital, funding and liquidity, I was able to support a fundamental restructuring of the organisation in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008-9. Coming to Deutsche Bank in 2017, I met a dynamic new management team committed to tackling the challenges facing the organisation. This culminated in the radical transformation programme which we launched in July of 2019 and are currently executing. This also gave me a chance to contribute my international experience at a leading European financial institution, the market leader in my native Germany. Deutsche Bank is Germany’s leading bank with strong European roots and a global network – the only German bank identified as a Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB) by the Financial Stability Board. Since its founding in 1870, Deutsche Bank has supported German industry both at home and across the globe. Acting as a trusted adviser and risk manager, Deutsche Bank has built relationships with corporate, institutional and private clients which have flourished over multiple generations. We’re building on this tradition and shaping this bank for the future – and that’s an exciting mission to be part of. What is the background for Deutsche Bank’s transformation strategy? In launching our transformation strategy, we set out to resolve several key challenges. We needed to improve profitability, reduce costs, instil greater discipline in capital allocation, reduce leverage, and at the same time sharpen our focus on building sustainable relationships with our most important clients. Our response to these challenges was the most fundamental restructuring of Deutsche Bank in the past two decades. We set ourselves an ambitious timeframe for execution: we aim to complete this transformation in three and a half years from our launch in mid- 2019, so by the end of 2022.