Deutsche Bank revamps advisory roles at global investment bank

By Emma-Victoria Farr, Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Tom Sims

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Deutsche Bank has revamped some leadership roles in its deal-making business, the latest reshuffle at the German lender's global investment bank as it seeks to meet a series of ambitious targets this year.

The bank said last month that its deal-making business had not performed as strongly as it expected due to global trade tensions.

Among the changes, Pierpaolo Di Stefano will oversee origination and advisory for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, excluding Germany, Austria and Switzerland, a Deutsche Bank spokesperson said on Thursday.

Jeff Cady and Bruce Evans will lead origination and advisory in the Americas, the spokesperson said.

A memo was recently sent to staff to announce the changes. Reuters has not seen the memo.

The aim was to streamline and simplify the job structure, said a person with direct knowledge of the division.

CEO Christian Sewing has called 2025 a "year of reckoning" as Germany's largest bank faces a deadline to meet targets on costs and profitability.

Deutsche Bank is also working to formulate financial goals for 2026 and beyond and possibly tweak its strategy, with Sewing declaring that nothing is off limits.

Among other changes at the deal-making division, Berthold Fuerst will oversee the origination and advisory business in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the spokesperson said.

In February, Deutsche Bank announced the retirement of its long-time co-head of the global investment banking division, Mark Fedorcik, and named his successor, Alison Harding-Jones.

While at Deutsche, Fedorcik oversaw a hiring spree at the investment bank after a period of retrenchment at the division.

Among his hires was Harding-Jones, who joined Deutsche Bank last year as global head of mergers and acquisitions. She previously worked at Citigroup and UBS.

This is the first major revamp at the investment bank under Harding-Jones.

CEO Sewing said last month that Deutsche's origination and advisory business was not as strong as executives had expected at the start of the year as companies postpone decisions due to U.S. tariff policies.

"Will it be weaker than we initially thought? Yes. But, to be honest, we talk about a lot of delayed, but not cancelled, deals," Sewing said.

Deal-making has slowed this year as U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on trading partners fanned turmoil in markets and sparked concerns about slowing economic growth. Other big banks, including Bank of America, have also warned of a slowdown in the business.

For Deutsche, origination and advisory revenue, after making big gains in recent quarters, dropped 8% in the first quarter.

(Reporting by Tom Sims. Editing by Friederike Heine, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Mark Potter)