Deutsche Bank board said to seek 6,000 job cuts at retail unit

[FRANKFURT] Deutsche Bank AG's management board will seek to cut as many as 6,000 jobs at the lender's retail unit by the end of 2022, providing the first estimate for the expected staff reductions at the newly formed division, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The final target for the reductions will need to be negotiated with the bank's labour representatives and may end up being lower, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the information. The bank seeks to cut more than 1,000 jobs each year through voluntary departures and natural attrition, the people said.

Deutsche Bank chief executive officer John Cryan has vowed to wring 900 million euros (S$1.46 billion) of costs from the unit annually after finishing the merger between the lender's old retail unit and Deutsche Bank's subsidiary Postbank, which it previously sought to sell.

The job cuts at the retail unit would be in addition to the goal, set by Mr Cryan in late 2015, to eliminate 9,000 positions at the overall group by the end of 2020.

The bank has already started cutting jobs at the retail unit and it began a voluntary programme late last year that aims to do away with 1,000 positions at the unit, a person said.

The number of anticipated job cuts at the retail unit, headed by co-deputy CEOs Christian Sewing and Frank Strauss, was first reported by the German newspaper WamS.

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