Has Deutsche Bank decided its $7k technologists aren't worth the hassle?

When Kim Hammonds arrived at Deutsche Bank in November 2013, she had a plan. "Instead of making big organizational changes when I first get into a new role, I try to optimize what already exists," she told Forbes. "For that, I really need to understand teams’ capabilities and to determine whether they and the work they do are organized properly."

Two years later, Hammonds seems to have decided Deutsche's technology business is neither capable, nor organized.

Hammonds was given her head last month, when she was promoted from Deutsche's chief information officer to its chief operating officer (as of the New Year). Now the FT she's planning to "rip out and replace" much of Deutsche's antiquated technology, which operates by 'trial and error' and doesn't show much sign of joined up thinking (Deutsche has more than 100 different booking systems for trades in London alone, and has no common client identifiers.)

If things looked bad for technology staff at Deutsche, they suddenly look worse. Last month, reports suggested that Deutsche was planning to layoff 8,000 technology staff (or 27% of the total). Maybe that was an understatement? Today the FT suggests the bank intends to dump 30,000 contractors alone.

The good news is that Deutsche may be about to reverse years of moving its technology roles offshore: the FT also reports that the German bank is planning the removal of 20,000 jobs in India - although these may be related to operations rather than technology.

Deutsche was one of the first banks to offshore technologists to both India and Russia. In 2006, it announced plans to triple its India-based support staff to 2000 by 2007. It's been offshoring technology jobs to Russia since 2006 and last year announced that it was setting up a 'tech centre' in Moscow to develop software for its investment bank.

Deutsche's Indian tech staff are paid a fraction of their London colleagues. Figures from Glassdoor suggest the going rate for a technology analyst at Deutsche in Bangalore is 443,477 rupees - or $6.8k. Glassdoor suggests software developers at Deutsche in Moscow are paid $19k.

For the moment, Deutsche seems to be focusing its technology recruitment closer to home. As the chart below shows, the bulk of the technology jobs advertised on the bank's own website are currently situated in the UK and the US. Of course, it could be advertising Bangalore-based jobs elsewhere. Or maybe Hammonds has simply decided that paying technologists $7k is more hassle than it's worth?