CANBERRA: Deutsche Bank is restructuring its wealth management business in Australia, as revealed by Street Talk on Thursday. It’s understood the local unit will close, however, Deutsche’s private bank will retain a cross border capability with teams in Singapore and Hong Kong to service Australian clients.
This column flagged the closure last week, noting that some executives in Asia have argued that the unit is not profitable on a standalone basis and was being propped up by revenues from areas such as margin lending.
Deutsche Australia and New Zealand are led by Michael Ormaechea, who replaced James McMurdo in February after the latter was promoted to run Deutsche’s Asia-Pacific corporate and investment bank. Globally, Deutsche is facing a tough future as it fights a $US14 billion demand from the US Department of Justice to settle claims relating to the mis-selling of mortgage-backed securities.
