Deutsche Bank to cut bonuses after tough year for Germany’s biggest bank

Deutsche Bank is set to slash its bonus pool by around 10 per cent after a torrid year for Germany’s biggest bank.

The bank’s board could also be more selective in its bonus pay in a bid to keep its highest earners, Bloomberg first reported.

In 2017 the German lender dished out €2.2bn (£2bn) but that figure could be set for a double-digit fall after less than impressive third quarter results, which saw revenue in its investment banking division drop 15 per cent.

Plans to slash the bonus pool could still be changed if the bank’s fourth quarter results, due to be published next month, markedly improve and the figures will finally be revealed in March.

Its share price dropped more than 50 per cent in 2018, during which it was also dragged into the Danske Bank money-laundering scandal.

The bank said it processed payments for Danske Bank but terminated the relationship in 2015 when it identified “suspicious activity.”

Last year, shortly after the arrival of chief executive Christian Sewing, the bank announced plans to cut more than 7,000 jobs as part of a restructuring, largely shouldered by its struggling investment banking division.

In November it expanded its cost-cutting plan, revising its own target of bringing down expenses to €21bn by 2021.