The German lender is placing its private bank in the hands of Claudio de Sanctis. The surprise move represents a meteoric rise for the ex-Credit Suisse banker, after just 11 months at Deutsche Bank.
Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank named Claudio de Sanctis as head of its wealth management arm, effective immediately, it said unexpectedly on Friday. He replaces Fabrizio Campelli (pictured below), an investment banker who was tasked with the role four years ago. The surprise move lands de Sanctis as the third executive to lead Deutsche's 199 billion euro ($219 billion) private bank in five years.
The German bank is attempting to revive its private bank, as it pares back or exits traditional strongholds like equity sales and trading and prime brokerage. It has poached a coterie of private banking and money management veterans, including Goldman Sachs’ Marco Pagliara as well as de Sanctis himself last December, to do so.
Moving Upstairs
Campelli, a 16-year veteran of Deutsche, will take a new job as head of transformation and human resources, the bank said. The move vaults the Italian-born banker into CEO Christian Sewing's small, heavily German top management.
The changes still leave private banking shut out of Deutsche's top management; the 46-year-old de Sanctis will take Campelli's seat on a wider committee of top management and business heads. Under Campelli, who previously hammered out strategy for investment banking boss Anshu Jain, Deutsche had been ready and willing to use its balance sheet to woo clients.
Dwarfed by Assets
The bank took a beating from investors this week following a third-quarter loss mired in restructuring costs. Its private banking arm ranks 17th largest in the world by assets, meaning it is dwarfed by giants like UBS or Citi.
Since joining Deutsche in December, de Sanctis hadn't been shy about making changes to become «the pre-eminent pan-European wealth manager,» as he told staff in March. The famously ambitious Swiss banker left Credit Suisse for Deutsche's top European wealth job, as well as running its Swiss bank, last year.
