Upset at Deutsche Bank as key fixed income salesman resigns

There's been a ruction at Deutsche Bank. Deutsche insiders say that one of the German bank's most important fixed income salespeople, Thomas Kønig, resigned yesterday to join an unnamed asset management business. 

Kønig was head of Deutsche's Nordic Institutional Clients Group - the team responsible for delivering the bank's fixed income products to its corporate and institutional clients in the Nordic region. Deutsche is particularly strong in the large Nordic debt capital markets (DCM) space. In the first quarter, it ranked second for Nordic high yield deals and ninth for Nordic investment grade deals, according to Dealogic.

Deutsche Bank declined to comment on Kønig's exit. DB has a reputation for offering generous buybacks to senior staff who try to leave. However, Kønig's departure is a done-deal and Deutsche has already replaced him. It's rehiring Edvin Petersson from Barclays and giving him an expanded role as head of ICG in all of Northern Europe.

Petersson worked for Deutsche before: he was the bank's Nordic head of rates for over six years until he left for Barclays in July 2018. His return in a bigger job looks like an instance of the well-worn strategy of leaving a long-term employer on good terms in order to be wooed back later on.

Kønig himself worked at Deutsche Bank for 12 years after joining from Nordea. He didn't respond to a request to comment and presumably doesn't intend to rejoin DB as head of all EMEA in 2025. A colleague said he's very busy all day in internal meetings - presumably to discuss the terms of his departure.

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