Deutsche Bank dismisses boss John Cryan after three years of losses

Deutsche Bank announced it has sacked its chief executive John Cryan after three years of reporting losses.

British-born Cryan has had to battle a series of scandals and bad results since he was brought in to turn around the bank in 2015.

Cryan was appointed to reorganize the bank and improve its performance, managing to avert a German government bailout and then embarking on a five-year restructuring plan that would involve the loss of 26,000 jobs by 2018. But the board still believes a new leadership strategy is needed before Cryan's contract was due to run out in 2020.

It is understood that the search for a new candidate to replace Cryan started after the company published it 2017 results where they reported annual losses of €500m.

Chairman Paul Achleitner thanked Cryan and said he “had carried out an important task in the 150 year history of the bank and has set the groundwork for a new successful future”.

“However, following a comprehensive analysis we came to the conclusion that we need a new execution dynamic in the leadership of our bank.”

Co-deputy chief executive Christian Sewing, who will take up the role as CEO, sent a memo to the almost-100,000 employees on Monday saying there could be further cuts under his leadership.

“In our Corporate and Investment Bank … we’ll have to further adapt our revenue, cost and capital structure”, read the memo, which was leaked to the Financial Times.

Michael Hewson, chief analyst at CMC Markets, said the big question now is to see how the new management strategy takes shape.

“Will Sewing focus on retail which is low margin and a highly competitive market or cut further in the investment banking division?" Hewson wondered. "The fact that they have gone with Sewing would suggest the former, which makes it odd that all the chatter in recent weeks was at seeking an investment banker to replace Cryan.

“It would appear that for now investors appear to perceive these management changes as less of a new broom, and more of a case of moving the deckchairs on a slowly sinking ship, with the shares rising on the removal of the uncertainty around Cryan. New management now need to deliver on a long term plan or we could well see this morning’s rally unravel quite quickly,” he concluded.