Christian Sewing

Christian Sewing became CEO of Deutsche Bank in 2018 at a time when Germany's largest bank was widely considered at risk of failure. Years of scandals (Libor manipulation, Russian money laundering, Epstein connections), massive regulatory fines, failed strategy pivots, and a collapsing stock price had brought the bank to its lowest point in modern history. Sewing's restructuring was radical: he shut down Deutsche Bank's global equities sales and trading business entirely, cut approximately 18,000 jobs, created a "bad bank" (Capital Release Unit) to wind down non-core assets, and refocused the institution on four pillars — Corporate Bank (transaction banking, the historical strength), Investment Bank (fixed income and origination, but not equities), Private Bank (German retail and international wealth management), and Asset Management (DWS). The restructuring has succeeded: Deutsche Bank has returned to consistent profitability, rebuilt capital ratios, and resumed shareholder distributions. Key stock drivers include European interest rates, corporate banking fee trends, fixed income trading revenue, German economic health, credit quality, further litigation/regulatory risks, the completion of cost reduction targets, and competitive positioning against JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and European rivals like BNP Paribas and Barclays in investment banking.