In June, Deutsche Bank announced the latest step in its restructuring: the creation of a new unit, its International Private Bank. This now becomes a prominent part of the larger private bank division, dominated by retail banking in Germany, that is one of the four pillars of the group, alongside the corporate bank, the investment bank and asset management.
The new unit combines the old private and commercial business international, which serves affluent retail customers and small and medium-sized enterprises mainly in Italy, Spain, Belgium and India, together with the global wealth management business, which covers family offices and entrepreneurs in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia and to a lesser extent the US.
The move underlines the bank’s determination to grow in wealth management where it is in the middle of an ambitious investment drive – rare within the industry and unusual amid Deutsche’s own cost cutting – that it announced last July would see some 300 relationship managers recruited over three years.
Rapid rise
The head of the new International Private Bank is Claudio de Sanctis, previously head of global wealth management at Deutsche.
