Don't be beastly to the poor old Deutsche Bank

DOES anyone work at Deutsche Bank anymore? Nary a week goes by without another self-described high-flyer emptying his desk, calling his Press contacts and announcing to the world that he is "getting out while the getting is good".

All this frequent flying, dutifully dramatised in print, could lead one to believe that the offices of the bank must be virtually empty by now. This City travel news provides excellent copy for banking correspondents, adding a human element to what they have portrayed as the steady and irreversible implosion of the bank in London.

In America the bank is criticised widely in the press for not stumping up a few billion to buy a bulge bracket firm or for rudely refusing to speak English during business meetings in Frankfurt. The bank's decision not to enter into a bidding war to keep its technology team in California - lost to CSFB for $1 billion was seen as an admission of failure by many pundits. Even in Germany the Press is outspoken in its criticism of the bank, its forays abroad and the Hollywood salaries paid to American employees. Bad news and Deutsche Bank seem to go hand in hand. The biggest and baddest bank on the block, it makes a great target for the sages of the financial media. So it must come as quite a shock to find that No. 6 Bishopsgate is not echo-ingly empty, that the bank is not haemorrhaging from losses and customers are not lining up outside branches in Germany to withdraw their money. In fact, Deutsche Bank is looking about as healthy as any European or global financial institution can at this time. And now that the latest market correction has sent the value of technology companies to rock bottom, perhaps not bidding to keep Frank Quat-trone and his marginally profitable team may have been the smartest move the bank ever made in America. Rated the best bank in Europe by Euromoney magazine, Deutsche Bank has excelled in derivatives, project finance, debt and equity underwriting and distribution and mergers and acquisitions. Despite the much heralded "retreat to Germany" that was predicted in the Press a few months ago, Deutsche Bank remains a strong and growing presence in the City, rivalled only by a handful of US investment banks for excellence and market penetration. MUCH to the consternation of its detractors, the bank even seems poised to post a profit in the third quarter of this year. All this good news pales, though, alongside a good knocking story readily provided by a disgruntled ex-employee with a keen grasp of PR. Deutsche Bank's headquarters in London is still packed with ex- Morgan Grenfell bankers with Rolodexes brimming with Press contacts who want to assure that their next career move is well reported. Coupled with the fact that we really don't like to see the Germans succeed where NatWest, Barclays and Midland failed, the good news about Deutsche Bank will remain a footnote in many business pages. In Germany, though, writing bad news about Deutsche Bank is considered a national sport. When the chairman dismissed the millions lost in a real-estate fraud as "peanuts", the term was instantly adopted across the country - a rare bit of German irony, this - to describe any major cock-up. The bank has been compared to the Titanic by one senior German journalist: "Very big, slow to change direction, almost unsinkable and with more incompetence than should be allowed for a ship that size." Despite this, nobody thinks Deutsche Bank is going down. In fact, with the City awash with rumours that certain US investment banks are on the verge of collapse, for many City high-flyers, working with the "biggest and baddest" is suddenly attractive.

Copyright 1998
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