Deutsche Bank considering slashing up to 20k jobs: report

Deutsche Bank is considering slashing 15,000 to 20,000 jobs after it passed the Federal Reserve’s muster this year, a report stated.

A source familiar with the contemplated cuts told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that the German bank would be slashing 16 percent to 22 percent of its current workforce of 91,463 staffers.

The alleged cuts would occur over more than a year and across multiple departments. Talks of the cuts allegedly occurred on Thursday and Friday but “no final decisions have been made,” a source told Reuters. Bloomberg reported the bank was “preparing to start cutting hundreds of jobs in its global equity division.” The German bank has approximately 1,000 equity employees.

Last month, Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing told shareholders he was ready to make “tough cuts” to improve the struggling bank’s profitability. The bank cut its staff to 91,700 employees from 99,700 in 2016.

The bank has struggled for years with high costs, low profitability and heavy fines and settlements for regulatory and legal breaches. Sewing took over as CEO last year with a mandate to accelerate change and put the bank's troubles behind it.

The bank is also being probed by U.S. law enforcement. Two congressional committees have subpoenaed Deutsche Bank documents as part of their investigations into President Donald Trump and his company. Deutsche Bank has been one for the few banks willing to lend to Trump after a series of corporate bankruptcies and defaults starting in the early 90s.

Shares of the bank increased by 4.9 percent Friday after it passed the Federal Reserve’s stress test. Last year it did not pass.

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Deutsche Bank declined to expound on The Wall Street Journal report. The bank told FOX Business in a statement, “As we said at the AGM on May 23, Deutsche Bank is working on measures to accelerate its transformation so as to improve its sustainable profitability. We will update all stakeholders if and when required.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.