Deutsche Bank Attempts to Reverse Slump in Equities, Reshuffles Team

Deutsche Bank AG, a German investment bank, has made a series of changes to its global equities division. This includes Ashley Wilson and Brad Kurtzman being named as global co-heads of equities trading.

According to an internal memo which was seen by Bloomberg, Wilson and Kurtzman will oversee the different product lines in the business. In addition to their new role, both Kurtzman and Wilson will continue to hold their previous positions as heads of equities in the Americas and Europe, respectively.

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The move is an attempt to reverse a slump that the firm has been experiencing in the past few years. Over the past 12 quarters, Deutsche Bank has experienced consecutive year-on-year drops in revenue for the division.

In their new role, Wilson and Kurtzman will report to Peter Selman. Selman is an ex-partner of Goldman Sachs Group Inc and came out of retirement to revive the firm’s division last year. However, it has been a slow process as low market volatility, management changes and lack of trust in the firm has hampered its progress.

In the memo, Selman wrote: “As our Q2 results have made clear, we are making significant progress in reorienting our equities business to focus on sustainable profitability. While our strategy hasn’t changed, we need to refocus our resources to our core strengths to boost revenues and profits and we need to take decisions faster.”

Further Role Changes in Deutsche Bank

According to the memo, Selman also named Matt Bowen and Angus Yang as co-heads of prime finance. This division caters to hedge fund clients. Running equity derivatives will be Mark Chen and Remy Ripoll. Cash equities will be lead by Karim Moussalem and Richard Chung. Rick Saunders has been appointed as the chairman of European equities, and Richard Chung has been named as the head of Asia Pacific equities.

In the article from Bloomberg, it also states that Deutsche’s co-head of prime business, Greg Bunn will be leaving the firm, sighting people familiar with the matter. However, Bunn has not yet responded to a request for comment.