Finance
Twists and turns in Deutsche Bank's modern history
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 28, 2025
3 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 28, 2025
3 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Deutsche Bank's history from 1989 to 2025 highlights leadership changes, strategic decisions, and challenges faced by Germany's largest lender.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank has extended CEO Christian Sewing's contract, while its deputy and another top executive will depart as part of a management revamp, cementing the leadership team of Germany's largest lender for the next phase of its turnaround.
Here's a timeline of the bank's modern history:
1989
Deutsche Bank expands into investment banking, buys a controlling stake in British merchant bank Morgan Grenfell. Sewing joined the bank the same year.
1995
Deutsche Bank moves most of its investment banking activities to London from Frankfurt, and lures American Edson Mitchell from Merrill Lynch with a multimillion-pound salary.
1998
Deutsche Bank starts merger talks with rival Dresdner Bank.
Deutsche Bank buys Bankers Trust Corp. for $10 billion, giving investment bankers critical mass to influence the German lender's strategy.
2000
Deutsche Bank agrees to a "merger of equals" with rival Dresdner Bank.
In April, the Dresdner-Deutsche Bank deal is called off after investment bankers at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein reject planned cuts.
The failure of the deal undermines Deutsche Bank CEO Rolf Breuer's authority and bolsters the power of investment banking chief Josef Ackermann. Mitchell is nominated to the Deutsche Bank management board.
Mitchell dies in a plane crash in December, giving Ackermann a dilemma over how to run the investment bank. Ackermann promotes Anshu Jain to be co-chief of the division.
2002
Ackermann takes over from Breuer as chief executive of Deutsche Bank.
2003
Deutsche Bank and Citigroup discuss a potential takeover. Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill and Ackermann have lunch in the Adlon Hotel in Berlin, where Weill proposes a deal: Deutsche would run the combined investment banking operations while Citigroup would take over retail and private banking.
2004
Ackermann informs his supervisory board about a potential sale to Citigroup but the plan is torpedoed.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who had been lobbied by captains of German industry to keep Deutsche Bank independent, called Ackermann and nudged Deutsche to buy retail lender Postbank.
2007
Deutsche Bank's investment bank uses the lender's balance sheet to make a $25 billion bet on mortgage-related securities.
2008
Deutsche Bank to take over Deutsche Postbank.
2011
Deutsche Bank says Jain and Juergen Fitschen will take over from Ackermann as co-chief executives.
2013
Deutsche Bank raises 3 billion euros in fresh capital. Jain says: "The hunger march is over."
2015
Deutsche Bank reviews a sale of Postbank as part of a strategic overhaul but eventually keeps it.
Jain resigns. Deutsche Bank installs John Cryan as sole chief executive.
2018
Deutsche Bank lists its asset manager DWS, generating proceeds of around 1.4 billion euros.
Deutsche Bank dismisses Cryan, appoints retail banking chief Sewing as chief executive.
2019
Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank hold merger talks but they fall apart.
Deutsche Bank revamps its strategy with a streamlined investment bank and focus on corporate banking.
2022
Police raid six Deutsche Bank offices in and around Frankfurt over money laundering allegations linked to the "Panama Papers".
2023
Deutsche Bank has disappointed customers with service lapses at Postbank after a botched integration. Germany's top financial regulator appoints a supervisor to investigate.
2024
Deutsche says it will make a legal provision in a long-running Postbank suit that will eventually hit the bank's profit streak.
2025
Deutsche Bank's CEO, who has restored the bank to profit, wins a third term.
(Reporting by Tom Sims and Reuters staff; Editing by Joe Bavier)
The article covers Deutsche Bank's modern history, focusing on leadership changes and strategic decisions.
CEO Christian Sewing's contract was extended, and there were notable management changes.
Recent challenges include service issues at Postbank and legal investigations related to money laundering.
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