DEUTSCHE BANK - Exclusive interview: Rolf Breuer on Bankers Trust
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DEUTSCHE BANK - Exclusive interview: Rolf Breuer on Bankers Trust

Rolf Breuer, speaker of Deutsche Bank, defends the purchase of Bankers Trust

Bankers Trust is more than just an acquisition. I think it forces us more than ever to reinvent the bank, and that is a crucial turning point, because there will be people who say "if that is what you have decided to do we have to part ways". After Bankers Trust, Deutsche Bank cannot and will not be the same.

Can you demonstrate you're producing shareholder value?

The first six months have been reassuring. I think our shareholders can see that investment banking is not just throwing money out of the window or after people. Of course we have a dramatic increase in bonuses accrued. If we have a bad third quarter there are no bonuses any more, but the accrued bonuses are very high. They are overcompensated by a fantastic increase in trading income.

Are there any of your major shareholders saying this is not the way to go?

No. We made a lot of experiences during our road show for our rights issue. The criticism was: market capitalization was not satisfying, and that was because of lack of profitability, on one side because of cost control, not rigid enough and on the other side the suspicion that we were not focused enough and were cross-subsidizing not-so-profitable businesses with the more profitable ones.

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