Deutsche Bank CEO Calls 2025 a 'year of Reckoning'

Deutsche Bank's CEO Declares 2025 as a Critical Turning Point

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing called 2025 a "year of reckoning" in remarks he planned to deliver on Thursday to shareholders demanding details on the path forward for Germany's largest lender.

The bank's management and shareholders were facing off at Deutsche's annual general meeting with the lender in the final stretch of a three-year plan, attempting to meet a series of targets that some analysts deem overly ambitious.

"We know how important 2025 is for us as a bank. It is the year of reckoning," Sewing planned to tell shareholders, according to a copy of his remarks released ahead of the speech.

Among the targets, Deutsche Bank is aiming for a cost-to-income ratio of less than 65% and a so-called return on tangible equity - a key measure of profitability - of more than 10%.

Analysts believe Deutsche Bank will miss both, based on a consensus forecast published this week by Deutsche.

The bank is "clearly on track", Sewing was expected to say.

Andreas Thomae of Deka Investment, also due to speak at the meeting on Thursday, was expected to call on Deutsche Bank to ensure a bigger share of profits come from stable business areas like the retail bank, rather than the volatile investment bank.

As part of an overhaul in 2019, Deutsche Bank set out to rely less on revenue from the investment bank, but the results of that aim have been mixed.

"You must finally deliver what you have been promising us for years," Thomae said, according to an advance copy of his remarks.

(Reporting by Tom Sims and Matthias Inverardi, Editing by Friederike Heine and Joe Bavier)