Deutsche Bank CEO calls 2025 a 'year of reckoning'

By Tom Sims and Matthias Inverardi

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing on Thursday called 2025 a "year of reckoning" for Germany's largest bank as it faces a deadline to meet ambitious targets on costs and profitability.

The bank's management and investors were facing off at Deutsche's annual general meeting as the bank enters the final stretch of its three-year plan which ends this year.

"We know how important 2025 is for us as a bank. It is the year of reckoning," Sewing told shareholders.

Among the targets, Deutsche Bank is aiming for a cost-to-income ratio of less than 65% and a so-called return on tangible equity - a key measure of profitability - of more than 10%.

Analysts believe the bank will miss both, based on a consensus forecast published this week by Deutsche.

But Sewing said the bank was "clearly on track" to meet the goals.

Sewing is in the process of tweaking the bank's strategy and formulating targets for next year and beyond. Deutsche Bank's first-quarter profits increased 39% thanks to a strong performance from its investment bank.

But some shareholders want the bank to rely less on volatile investment banking and focus on more stable business lines such as consumer and corporate banking.

Andreas Thomae of Deutsche Bank shareholder Deka Investment, called on the bank to ensure a bigger share of profits comes from stable business areas like the retail bank.

As part of an overhaul in 2019, Deutsche Bank set out to rely less on revenue from the investment bank, but the results have been mixed.

"You must finally deliver what you have been promising us for years," Thomae said.

Some shareholders, who have in the past worried about the health of the investment bank, are now concerned about Deutsche's retail division, which is its second-largest in terms of revenue.

Markus Kienle, from the SdK investor protection association, called the retail division the bank's "problem child".

Last year, Deutsche's management was caught off guard by a court ruling in an investor lawsuit involving the retail division, which led the bank to report a quarterly loss and try to reach settlements with plaintiffs.

(Reporting by Tom Sims and Matthias Inverardi, Editing by Friederike Heine, Joe Bavier and Jane Merriman)

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