Deutsche Bank is to exit its Equities Sales & Trading business as part of a wider restructuring plan which will see the business shed 18,000 jobs globally by 2022.

The first round of cuts, affecting teams of shares traders in Tokyo and other Asian offices, have already been announced in a move a spokesperson says is designed to make the bank ‘leaner and stronger’. 

Deutcshe Bank has said it is ‘retaining a focused equity capital markets operation’ while it also plans to resize its fixed income operations – in particular its rates business – and will accelerate the wind-down of its existing non-strategic portfolio. In aggregate, Deutsche Bank will reduce risk-weighted assets currently allocated to these businesses by approximately 40 per cent.

The bank will create a new Capital Release Unit to manage the efficient wind-down of the assets related to business activities, which are being exited or reduced. These assets and businesses represented EUR74 billion of risk-weighted assets and EUR288 billion of leverage exposure, as of 31 December 2018.

These actions are designed to allow Deutsche Bank to focus on and invest in its core, market leading businesses of Corporate Banking, Financing, Foreign Exchange, Origination & Advisory, Private Banking, and Asset Management.

Deutsche Bank will implement a cost reduction program designed to reduce adjusted costs to EUR17 billion in 2022 and is targeting a cost income ratio of 70 per cent in that year.