September 17, 2015, 19:56 / Finance

Deutsche Bank is winding down its business in Russia

Operations of the corporate banking and securities division will be serviced from the international office Ilya Usov Tatyana Voronova Marie Mesropyan

A press release distributed by the Russian division of Deutsche Bank emphasizes that this is being done as part of a review of the geographic presence of the financial institution / E. Razumny / Vedomosti

A press release appeared on the Deutsche Bank website last night with the headline “Deutsche Bank is optimizing its Russian business” and dated today, September 18. It followed that the bank was curtailing its investment banking business (corporate financing and securities trading), as well as depository services as part of a revision of the geography of its presence. However, the message was soon deleted.

The executive director of the Deutsche Bank group in Russia, Pavel Teplukhin, and the bank’s representative in Russia declined to comment. One of the bank’s employees assured that Deutsche Bank is not leaving Russia and retains its banking license here. According to him, the department of commercial banking services (services for supporting foreign trade transactions, managing client funds, working capital financing and foreign exchange transactions), the department for managing private large capital and technical centers in Moscow and St. Petersburg will remain. After optimization, according to him, as previously planned, 1,100 people will remain.

Deutsche Bank plans to lay off a quarter of its staff

Finance

Interfax, citing a press release, reported that corporate financing and trading operations of Russian clients will be carried out from international offices. The bank will offer transactions with Russian securities, attracting third parties to execute transactions in Russia, as well as provide other banking services to key Russian clients, according to the message. The transition of customer service to the new model is planned to be carried out in the next few months, it says. The transition period and closure of the Russian division will last until the end of 2015.

Yesterday, the Russian Deutsche Bank announced that Jörg Bongartz is leaving the position of chairman and head of the commercial banking department of the Russian bank, which he has held since 2006. He will move to Frankfurt and receive a new position. In early September, Deutsche Bank's supervisory board met for its annual meeting in the Bavarian Alps to discuss the bank's new strategy.

After which the WSJ and FT wrote about possible layoffs in the Russian division of Deutsche Bank. According to them, the bank was going to cut up to 200 employees of the Russian investment banking division. This coincided with inspections by the United States, Great Britain and Germany of transactions of the Russian office of Deutsche Bank for $6 billion on suspicion of laundering. Deutsche Bank itself announced in May that it was reviewing transactions from 2011 to 2015. Transactions involving the purchase of derivatives for rubles on the over-the-counter market and similar sales for dollars a few seconds later on the over-the-counter market in London came under suspicion. In August, according to WSJ, Timothy Wiswell, who oversaw operations with Russian shares, left the bank.