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Deutsche Bank has made the latest in a number of changes to its top leadership, announcing the departure of chief financial officer James von Moltke and its chief legal officer as it starts to pull together its new strategy.
Chair Alexander Wynaendts said on Thursday that the end of Deutsche’s current long-term strategy cycle this year would be a “natural point in time to hand over the CFO responsibilities”.
Von Moltke, whose contract expires in June next year, will be succeeded by Morgan Stanley-banker Raja Akram. Akram will join the bank in October and become a member of the board in January to ensure a smooth handover.
Germany’s largest lender also said that it had extended the contract of chief executive Christian Sewing by three years until April 2029 to “ensure continuity in key management roles”.
The latest management turnover comes after Deutsche announced in December that chief risk officer Olivier Vigneron would leave after just three years, following warnings that provisions for bad loans would be worse than expected.
Former Commerzbank chief risk officer Marcus Chromik will replace Vigneron in May.
The departure of von Moltke brings to an end a partnership between chief executive and chief financial officer that has been central to Deutsche Bank’s turnaround.
Sewing and von Moltke had worked together on tackling Deutsche’s legacy of compliance and regulatory issues ever since Sewing became chief executive in 2018.
But the bank has struggled to leave some of its challenges behind, with costs remaining stubbornly high and difficulties with the integration of Postbank, the retail lender Deutsche bought more than a decade ago.
In January this year, Sewing said that the bank was looking at ditching weaker businesses to improve performance, adding that “nothing is off limits”.
Deutsche said on Thursday that chief legal officer Stefan Simon would leave the bank in May for personal reasons, with responsibility for legal issues to be assumed directly by Sewing.
Simon’s short-term bonus almost halved last year, after the bank was hit by an unexpected €900mn litigation charge relating to a long-running court case over the price it paid for Postbank.
The head of the corporate and investment banking divisions, Fabrizio Campelli, is being handed regional responsibility for the Americas from Simon, with his contract extended by three years to October 2028.
Von Moltke and Akram previously worked together at Citigroup, where von Moltke was treasurer until joining Deutsche in 2017 and Akram worked until 2020.
