Deutsche Bank axes 4,500 more

DEUTSCHE Bank is axeing 7,100 staff this year in response to weak market conditions. The German group said it was slicing its workforce by 2,600 earlier this year but today announced a further cull of 4,500 employees. London staff will not be immune.

Yesterday, Deutsche suffered an embarrassing leak of its figures for the first nine months of the year 24 hours ahead of schedule. They showed a slump in net profits from e4.4bn (£2.7bn) to e2.8bn.

Nonetheless, chief executive Rolf Breuer was sanguine about the outlook. 'Owing to our sound general condition on a broad basis, we are very confident that we can get through the remaining months of 2001 comparatively well,‘ he said.

The biggest profits decline in the year to date came from Deutsche's private client arm, where earnings sank 90% from e464m to e46m. This led to a decline in earnings at the private client and asset management business from e1.25bn to e400m. Of the 4500 job losses, 3300 will come from this division, the remainder from central services such as security and property.

Corporate and investment banking, in which Londonbased staff are primarily employed, recorded a fall in pre-tax earnings from e3.6bn to e2.7bn.

Revenue from equities origination was down by around 70% and equity sales and trading were also hit hard. Advisory revenues dropped from e589m to e400m but debt revenues held up well and increased from last year to this.