Jürgen Fitschen: Deutsche's developing domestic market strategy
Euromoney, is part of the Delinian Group, Delinian Limited, 4 Bouverie Street, London, EC4Y 8AX, Registered in England & Wales, Company number 00954730
Copyright © Delinian Limited and its affiliated companies 2024
Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement
BANKING

Jürgen Fitschen: Deutsche's developing domestic market strategy

Domestic criticisms of Deutsche Bank’s international focus have not passed it by, prompting plans to develop its business at home. But as Jürgen Fitschen, who leads the initiative, tells Philip Moore, his bank does not intend to imitate rivals’ indiscriminate wooing of medium-size companies.

Deutsche brings it all back home


Jürgen Fitschen, Deutsche Bank
“We have continued to generate wonderful results in Germany. But the fact is that Germany is a relatively small market in a global context”

DEUTSCHE BANK GROUP executive committee member Jürgen Fitschen hardly has the cushiest job in Germany’s financial sector. As chairman since 2004 of Deutsche’s new German management committee, he shoulders the weighty responsibility of developing the bank’s strategy in its domestic market. It is a delicate mandate for two reasons. The first is that it has as much to do with diplomacy and public relations as with banking, given the severe criticism of Deutsche’s senior management made by domestic commentators who question the bank’s emphasis on international expansion.

The critics have included Reinhard Butikofer, leader of the Green Party, who has described Deutsche Bank’s Swiss chief executive Josef Ackermann’s programme of domestic job cuts as “cynical” and “incomprehensible”. Certain sections of the German media have picked up the refrain, vilifying Deutsche for axeing thousands of local jobs while racking up record revenues and profits. To the more fiercely patriotic of its critics, Deutsche has transformed itself into an organization whose language is English and business procedures American.


Gift this article