Deutsche Bank To Lay Off Traders

Deutsche Bank is expected to lay off 900 traders, primarily from proprietary trading, structured products and credit origination desks within its global markets division which employs about 7,000 traders.

Most of the affected employees work in London and New York. But foreign exchange trading "will be largely unaffected," according to Reuters. There was no official confirmation of the story.

"The German bank, which had initially managed to duck the worst of the financial storm, is seeing frigid markets sap earnings in what used to be the engine room of its business -- investment banking and trading," Reuters reports.

Deutsche has already eliminated more than 1,500 jobs this year according to Bloomberg News. However, the new report is said to be the single biggest single cut to its investment banking business since the financial crisis began some 18 months ago. The Frankfurt-based bank employs 81,300 people worldwide, including 15,500 at its corporate and investment bank.

Deutsche Bank's investment-banking unit posted losses for its last three quarters. It has written down its mortgage, real estate and credit assets by 8.5 billion euros ($6.68 billion) since last year.

The Bloomberg story also says that JPMorgan is poised to shut its global proprietary trading desk, and Credit Suisse is weighing cuts in that area as well.

Separately, Deutsche announced Thursday a new head for its private wealth management business in the UK. Effective March 1, 2009, Tom Slocock will join Deutsche Bank from Credit Suisse, where he was head of international private banking. He replaces David Campbell, who will remain with Deutsche as head of global investments and services.