The German lender expects the region, which accounted for 11 per cent of total net revenue before provision for credit losses last year, to drive the growth of its core businesses, Christian Sewing said in a video interview on Tuesday.
“Since I’ve been CEO, I have made it clear that one key growth region is Asia-Pacific,” said Sewing, who took the helm in 2018.
“There is not one of our Asian markets where I would say that there is no growth. Asia-Pacific will drive a significant part of the growth in Deutsche Bank going forward.”
The Frankfurt-headquartered bank generated the largest share of its revenue – 44 per cent – in its home market of Germany last year, according to its annual report. The Americas, primarily the United States, took about 17 per cent, while the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa markets followed with around 14 per cent each.
Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing. Photo: Handout alt=Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing. Photo: Handout>
Deutsche Bank operates in 15 markets in Asia-Pacific, including Hong Kong and mainland China, all of which are “profitable”, according to Sewing. These markets offer “big growth potential” in three areas: corporate banking, strategic advice in the investment bank, and private wealth management.
“Given the complexity and geopolitical risks in this world, more and more corporate clients are actually asking for strategic advice,” he said.
Deutsche Bank has invested heavily globally and pointedly in the region in the last 18 months, specifically bulking up the origination and advisory business of its investment bank and its private bank and wealth management divisions. Peers including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have trimmed jobs.
Its headcount in Asia-Pacific jumped the most compared with other geographies, up by 16.6 per cent to 27,095 as of 2023.
This month, it made two senior investment banking hires for the region, appointing Deepak Dangayach as head of sponsors financing and Victor Jiang as co-head of technology, media and telecommunications. Dangayach joined from the Swiss bank UBS, while Jiang previously worked at China International Capital Corp. In March, Michael Hufton was hired from Morgan Stanley as co-head of infrastructure and utilities for Asia-Pacific in the investment bank.
“We invested significantly and against the industry trend,” said Sewing. “Last year we were one of the only banks that really focused on strong origination and advisory businesses globally and in Asia-Pacific. And it’s paying off.”
Private wealth management is another focus for the lender as it diversifies from its traditional corporate and investment banking services. In March, it announced the appointment of Chester Liu as market head for North Asia.
“We want to ensure that Deutsche Bank has a balanced business mix and gets a good bite of the market share as other banks have exited or pulled back,” said Sewing.
Hong Kong and mainland China look particularly promising for the private banking business, Sewing said. The mainland hosts 10 per cent of the world’s millionaires, with more than 6 million of them, while Hong Kong also boasts a high concentration of millionaires per capita and taps into investment migration trends from the mainland.
It has pitched itself to Asian clients as “the European alternative” to the local and US banks.
“Clients really want to have an alternative to the US banks in this complex world, and this can be and should be Deutsche Bank. That’s our strategy,” Sewing said.
