Deutsche Bank slashes 3,500 jobs in £1.4bn cost-cutting effort

Deutsche Bank is set to cut 3,500 jobs in an attempt to save €1.6bn (£1.4bn), as the bank has reported a fourteen per cent drop in profits.

The bank is understood to have about 6,000 employees in London out of over 90,000 globally, meaning if job cuts were spread evenly, the UK would see around 230 jobs eliminated.

It has not disclosed in which region the jobs will be cut.

The cost-cutting programme, which has already seen €900m in savings since it was announced in 2019, has also weighed on net profit, as the firm spent €566m throughout the year on restructuring and severance expenses. It expects to spend almost €400m more next year.

The new phase of the programme will see the 3,500 roles, mostly in non-client-facing areas, eliminated.

Net profits for the bank fell to €4.9bn in 2023, which it credited to “higher income tax expenses”.

Deutsche Bank chief executive Christian Sewing praised the firm’s performance in an “uncertain environment“, highlighting that the firm had achieved a pre-tax profit of almost €5.7bn, the highest in 16 years.

“Cost discipline remains a high priority,” he added.

In the bank’s new targets for 2025, it said it would aim to achieve revenues of €32bn, while operating with total costs of about €20bn.

The bank also planned to dish out large dividends to shareholders, giving €0.45 per share, a 50 per cent increase from 2022.

“Our ambition is to be able to pay a dividend of one euro per share for the financial year 2025,” Sewing said.