The case for Deutsche Bank as Europe’s leading research house rests on a structural argument as much as a performance one. The bank’s global head of research, David Folkerts-Landau, reports directly to group CEO Christian Sewing rather than into sales and trading, an organisational choice with real consequences for what the research division can and cannot do.
It means the team is not ultimately accountable to a profit centre, can write on topics that are not immediately monetisable and can maintain independent positions even on clients and markets where the bank has deep commercial relationships.
When Deutsche Bank downgraded Germany’s GDP forecasts in October, citing inadequate structural reform, it was doing so as the country’s largest and most connected bank – a test of independence that it passed.
That credibility matters because 2025 was a year in which the quality of European macro analysis was tested in ways it...
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