Deutsche to widen platform

Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest bank, was poised to signal a shift in strategy yesterday following the failure of efforts to free the bank from its costly domestic retail banking network.

Rolf Breuer, chairman, is expected to outline plans to build a European-wide retail banking platform, based on Deutsche Bank 24, the branch and online banking unit, when he delivers Deutsche’s first-half results at a press conference today.

Mr Breuer is also expected to detail plans for the expansion of Brokerage 24, the discount broking arm, in key European countries.

The move comes just over a week after Deutsche Bank’s Frankfurt rivals Commerzbank and Dresdner Bank abandoned merger talks, the second time in four months that German banks have failed to respond to the growing pressure for consolidation in the country’s overcrowded and fragmented banking market.

It is understood Deutsche Bank is planning to bundle together its retail banking operations in Spain, Italy and Belgium under the roof of Deutsche Bank 24, widely seen as the most modern banking platform in Europe.

The move will enable it to forge a European retail banking business with a common IT platform and with more than 8m private customers. Deutsche Bank has 7m retail customers in Germany, another 700,000 in Spain and Italy, where it is the biggest foreign bank, and 300,000 in other countries.

It is understood the bank might also try to expand its retail operations in France where it offers a private banking service for a small number of high-net-worth individuals.

The plans appear to be the result of a strategic review in the wake of the breakdown in April of the month-long merger talks with Frankfurt rival Dresdner Bank.

That deal would have seen Allianz, the Munich insurer, walk away with a majority stake in the combined banks’ retail operations as well as Deutsche Bank’s fund management business. Reuters