Deutsche Bank to Expand Hiring in U.S. Wealth Push

“We’re not a mass-market business,” he said. “We focus on two or three things and try do it very well. We aim to be the main European alternative to the U.S. players in that market.”

Across Deutsche Bank, revenue from wealth management and private banking stood at €1.1 billion in the first quarter, unchanged from a year earlier.

Swiss giant UBS Group AG, which is making a fresh run at the U.S. market, and Morgan Stanley, the largest U.S. wealth manager, made roughly six times as much.

Still, the German lender has come a long way since the early days of its restructuring, according to Anthony Valvo, U.S. market head for Deutsche Bank’s wealth unit. Back then, staff initially had to leverage personal relationships to help persuade peers to join the firm, which was struggling to revive investor confidence.

Now it doesn’t even have to use outside recruiters and has walked away from possible candidates who weren’t the right fit for Deutsche Bank’s culture, according to Valvo.

The lender’s share price has more than doubled since it announced turnaround plans in July 2019, helping to retain staff as well as attract new employees.

The banking crisis sparked by Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse meanwhile has led to conversations with rich U.S. individuals and families over whether they have a relationship with a foreign lender, said Valvo, who joined in 2019 and previously worked at firms including Citigroup.

“We started to see a pick-up in engagement on those discussions,” said Valvo. “New York in the northeast is always going to be a growth engine,” but “we see tremendous opportunity in the West Coast.”

Since January, Deutsche Bank hired former Citigroup executive Carl Tong and onetime City National Bank wealth adviser Brian Barclay to build up its presence in Los Angeles. Last year, it recruited Vanessa Perez from Bank of America to boost its Miami offering.

Overall, the firm has hired about 40 private bankers in the U.S., the largest market for wealth management services, over the past three years. Nagarkatti says that should help Deutsche Bank become the preferred boutique focused on sophisticated, ultra-rich investors.

“The business has enormous potential,” said London-based Nagarkatti, who has worked at Deutsche Bank for more than two decades. “We’re never going to be the largest player in the US, but in the space we cover, we absolutely want to be the number one.”

(Image: Bloomberg)