The bonus pool decline will be “comfortably” in the double digits when it is announced in March, according to one senior manager at the bank. The Deutsche manager told The Financial Times that the bonus pool “is looking pretty horrible. It’s significantly down.”
Although the size of the bonus pool can still change over the next two months, a source told the paper that on aggregate, bonuses in some business areas would be down as much as 20 per cent.
The news comes after the bank went through a series of crises over the past year including losing market share, a 15 per cent plunge in revenue and losing a string of high profile executives and managing directors to rivals.
The departures of these highly paid directors with big bonuses are also part of the reason the pool is smaller, managers told the newspaper.
Chief executive Christian Sewing also axed a quarter of jobs in its equities and sales business and 930 front office staff leaving an overall headcount of 94,800.
Back in November, the bank’s shares plummeted after German police stormed their Frankfurt offices
The bank confirmed the raid in a statement and said the searches were linked to the Panama Papers – the raft of leaked financial documents relating to offshore accounts.
Frankfurt’s public prosecutor said data found in the Panama Papers had sparked the search over concerns the bank had links to offshore companies in tax havens.
The Panama Papers, which consist of millions of documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, were leaked to the media in April 2016.
The investigation is separate from another money laundering scandal surrounding Danish lender Danske Bank, where Deutsche Bank is involved.