Dresdner faces Wasserstein poser

GERMAN banking group Dresdner is consulting with management in New York about whether or not to keep the name Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein for its investment bank, following the departure of Bruce Wasserstein last week.

Dresdner bought the right to the Wasserstein name when it acquired the legendary Wall Street boutique Wasserstein Perella for £900m in September last year. But Bruce Wasserstein has now quit DKW to become chief executive of Lazards.

'We are entitled to the name but we are talking to our people in the States about whether we should keep it,' said one source.

Wasserstein's name became synonymous in the 1980s with ultra aggressive Wall Street investment banking, a style made famous through books such as Bonfire of the Vanities and Barbarians at the Gate. Bruce Wasserstein personally made about £400m from the sale to Dresdner.

As chairman of the group's investment banking business, he spent the first few months of his new position still living in New York and moved to London only six months ago. But he became disillusioned with his parent when Dresdner was acquired by German insurer Allianz and plans to float DKW were shelved.