Berlin: India-born Anshu Jain has emerged as the front-runner to succeed Josef Ackermann as the CEO of Deutsche Bank and it looks increasingly likely that he will be nominated shortly for Germany's top banking job.
As the race for the leadership of Germany's largest bank entered a decisive phase, Jain seems to have won the backing of the supervisory board and what remains to be decided is whether he will take over the reins together with his management board colleague, Juergen Fitschen, when the incumbent Ackermann retires in early 2013.
Deutsche Bank's supervisory board is convinced that Jain, 48, who currently runs the bank's highly successful investment banking business from its headquarters in London, has the best credentials to succeed Ackermann.
But it favours him to share the post initially with Fitschen because of his deficiency to communicate in German and lack of high-level networking in German politics, media reports said.
The supervisory board is of the view that Fitschen's long experience as management board member responsible for Deutsche Bank's domestic business, high-level political contacts and good relations with German business and industry will be complementary to Jain's international reputation as a successful investment banker and they can build a good team.
A nominating committee of the Deutsche Bank is expected to propose Jain and Fitschen at the weekend as co-directors of the management board for a final decision by the supervisory board, which is likely to hold a special meeting next week, the reports said.
Jain's chances to take over the helm of the Deutsche Bank were boosted by the announcement of the Swiss bank UBS over a week ago that former president of the German Bundesbank, Axel Weber, will become the head of its management board in 2013.
Weber's unexpected resignation last February had fuelled speculation that he was planning to move to Deutsche Bank and to take over as its co-head together with Jain when Ackermann retires after nine years in office.
His departure from the race has left Jain as the only serious contender for Deutsche Bank's leadership.
Two other possible candidates for the job are management board members Hugo Bänziger and Rainer Neske, but they are no match for Jain's experience or reputation.
Fitschen, 62, lacks international exposure as well as experience in lucrative investment banking and the supervisory board will not be prepared to hand over the running of the bank in his hands alone.
Even though Jain seems to be assured of the top Deutsche Bank job, Fitschen's expected nomination as co-head is seen as a short-term solution, because he will have to retire when he reaches 65, shortly after taking over his post in 2013.
The supervisory board must be hoping that by that time Jain will become fluent in spoken German and establish high-level political contacts matching the dimension of the largest German bank to be in a position to take over its sole leadership, the reports said.
If the Deutsche Bank supervisory board takes an early decision on its post-Ackermann leadership, it could be possible that the incumbent may clear the way for his successor instead of waiting for his term to expire in 2013, according to the reports.
Jain, who moved to the Deutsche Bank from Merrill Lynch in mid-1990s, has been credited with building up the bank's investment banking division as a profitable business even during the financial crisis, when global investment banking suffered a decline.
He took over as the head of the investment banking division in July last year and under his leadership, it contributed to more than three-fourth of the Deutsche Bank's earnings of 28.9 billion euros in 2010.
Before taking over the leadership of the investment banking division, Jain had jointly managed it together with Michael Cohrs for six years and played a key role in building up the bank's global investment business from its London base, where it employs over 7,000 people.
He has been a member of the Deutsche Bank management board since January, 2009.
Source: Financial Express
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