The head of EMEA utilities just resigned from Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank may be hiring whole teams for its wealth management business, but it's also losing people from its corporate and investment bank. The latest exit is understood to be Steffen Pleser, head of the bank's utilities business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Insiders say Pleser resigned yesterday after 15 years with the bank. - He joined in 2004 after graduating from Germany's European Business School. Pleser's destination is unclear, but he's thought to be joining a competitor. 

Deutsche declined to comment on Pleser's exit, which comes as the bank is restructuring and making 18,000 redundancies in an attempt to achieve a return on equity palatable to shareholders. M&A is theoretically an area of focus under the new strategy, but Deutsche has been hit by various resignations - including Alastair Blackman, the head of media investment banking in Europe, who left for Barclays in July.

Pleser declined to comment. One Deutsche insider said other exits are likely at the end of the summer. "With all the restructuring and changes in leadership at DB, the platform will be in a state of unrest for the next few years."

In the first half of 2019, advisory (M&A) revenues at Deutsche Bank were €212m, 12% lower than the same period one year earlier.

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com in the first instance. Whatsapp/Signal/Telegram also available.

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)