Deutsche Bank, one of the biggest banks in Europe, just laid off 20% of it’s work force.
It posted a second quarter loss of 3.5 billion dollars (USD) and possibly worse yet, is experiencing “a run on the bank” — depositors pulling their money from the bank — of up 1 billion dollars a day presently.
The CNBC Report indicates:
The British bank, run by ex-J.P. Morgan executive Jes Staley, has persuaded hedge fund clients with $20 billion in balances at Deutsche Bank to move to Barclays, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Half of that amount is from a single client, the people said….
Deutsche is under pressure to close its deal with BNP Paribas because clients have been pulling roughly $1 billion in balances a day, Bloomberg reported last week. The overall size of the business is 150 billion euros ($167 billion), according to the report.
Catering to hedge funds has been a priority for investment banks as it’s become the single-biggest source of equities revenue. The world’s 12 largest investment banks produced $18.3 billion in prime services revenue last year, 8.3% more than 2017, according to industry data provider Coalition. [1]
Given the precarious position of a number of other banks, the potential failure of a major European bank could trigger further bank failures. Regulators and depositors are keeping a wary eye on this developing situation.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/25/barclays-nabbed-20-billion-in-hedge-fund-balances-from-deutsche-bank.html