Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke of Deutsche Bank sees the logic in European banking sector consolidation, and the task at hand is to prepare for that conclusion, he said on Thursday.
Von Moltke told a finance conference held by BofA Securities that the German bank should first complete a strategy makeover before considering significant deals, echoing the German bank’s traditional policy on potential mergers.
In response to a query, he remarked, “We recognize the industry logic that there should be consolidation in European banking.”
“It’s something we expect to see in our company’s future… To prepare for that scenario, we must put our focus on transformation.”
Although a hypothetical merger with a major Swiss bank has been mentioned several times, Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing has stated that a recovery plan he presented in 2019 should come first.
Last year, the bank made its first full-year profit since 2014, and Moody’s just upgraded the firm’s credit rating.
Von Moltke stated that Deutsche’s four business units – asset management, private, corporate, and investment banking – were functioning as expected or better than expected. It is now on track to meet its revenue target of 25 billion euros ($29.3 billion) or more for next year.
Von Moltke said the company “stands by its disclosures” in response to a US inquiry into asset management subsidiary use of sustainable investing criteria.
“We’ll have to go through the process of those investigations,” he said, adding that the investigation was unlikely to have a significant impact on Deutsche’s third-quarter results.
