Deutsche Bank: Ackermann against Jain as CEO

By siliconindia   |   Monday, 30 May 2011, 23:12 IST
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Deutsche Bank: Ackermann against Jain as CEO
London: The senior ranks of Deutsche Bank are on the verge of "open warfare" as the process of finding a successor for Chief Executive Josef Ackermann degenerates into animosity, the Financial Times has reported. The German bank has not yet appointed a successor to Ackermann, whose contract runs until 2013, but is widely expected to retire a year early. Under German corporate governance, a successor should be picked by the bank's supervisory board under Clemens Borsig, its chairman. Three top bankers and two shareholders accused Ackermann of seeking to hijack the succession planning process at Deutsche Bank, the Financial Times reported. Ackermann, who has headed Deutsche since 2002, has until now has been a unifying force, bridging the cultural divide between its domestic heartland and it's largely London and New York-based investment bank, led by India-born Anshu Jain, the daily noted. However, a Frankfurt-London gulf appears to be re-emerging as the process of picking a successor to the Switzerland-born chief executive stalls, it added. "Ackermann appears increasingly opposed to the idea that the next CEO should be Jain who is preferred by many shareholders." Deutsche generates most of its profits within Jain's corporate and investment bank. "Any lengthy struggle over the leadership issue could be adverse to Deutsche's ambitions to build its business further in the U.S. and Asia and also create a distraction from legal issues facing the bank in the U.S., including a civil fraud suit brought by the Department of Justice," the report notes.

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