Deutsche's new CEO demands 'hunter's mentality'

In an open letter to Deutsche Bank's roughly 100,000 employees, the lender's newly appointed CEO, Christian Sewing, said Monday he intended to take a close look at the operations at the lender's investment bank.

"We know that we have to bring about change in our profit, cost and capital structure," he said in the letter. "We will have to make a thorough analysis to find how best to position ourselves in a challenging market environment."

Sewing indicated that Deutsche Bank would aim to strengthen some of its businesses, while completely withdrawing from others where profitability could not be maintained.

He added that the management would no longer accept that cost and profit targets were being permanently missed. Sewing said it would not be tolerated if adjusted costs would exceed €23 billion ($28 billion) this year.

He said that setbacks of the kind witnessed in the final quarter of last year must not be repeated.

Profitability in focus

Sewing told staff that Germany's largest lender had to come up with a sounder strategy aimed at securing more profits medium- and long-term.

"Talking about our earnings, we have to regain our former hunter's mentality," he said, adding that the bar for this had to be raised in all of the lender's business areas.

Sewing said it stood to reason that the bank had to return to profitability as soon as possible, everything else, he added, was not negotiable.

On Sunday, Christian Sewing replaced former CEO John Cryan, effective immediately, over the lender's continuous problems concerning its performance and strategic orientation.

Investors welcomed the management reshuffle, sending Deutsche's shares up by over 3 percent in early-morning trading on Monday.

hg/ap (Reuters, dpa)