Bernhard Walter, Chief executive-elect, Dresdner Bank

"Why Walter?" asked even senior staff at Dresdner Bank when Bernhard Walter was designated as the bank's next chief executive. From outside German banking came a simpler query: "Who is Walter?" So far, Walter has made no attempt to shed light on either mystery.

Long before he succeeds Jurgen Sarrazin next May, Walter is already tainted as a compromise candidate. Ask any senior German banker, inside or outside Dresdner, and you'll hear a different explanation for the surprise election of Walter by Dresdner's supervisory board. No one saw him as the obvious choice: Heinz-Jörg Platzek, Ernst-Moritz Lipp, Gerhard Eberstadt, Horst Müller and Gerd Häusler were all believed to have a stronger claim.

Yet more than any of these erstwhile rivals, Walter can be seen as a successful combination of commercial banker and investment banker. As head of corporate...