Deutsche Bank to reduce Annual costs by 3.5 billion euros

German banking and financial services company Deutsche Bank has planned to reduce annual costs by about 3.5 billion euros. In addition, the bank has decided to cut back its ownership in the Postbank consumer unit.

In a statement on Monday, the company headquartered in the Deutsche Bank Twin Towers in Frankfurt stated that the bank has targeted to achieve a return on tangible equity of about 10% in the medium term. As per plan, the company will reduce its local presence and number of countries by about 15% by 2020.

Co-chief executive officers of Deutsche Bank Juergen Fitschen and Anshu Jain have been using their strategic overhaul to meet previous targets. They said in a statement, “We must remain client-centric, but focus more sharply on mutually attractive client relationships; remain global, but become more geographically focused; and remain universal, but avoid trying to be all things to all people”.

According to reports, the bank has planned to buy shares in Postbank that it will not own before selling a stake in the company to the public by the end of next year. Last week, Deutsche Bank paid the record fine of more than US$2 billion for rigging interest-rate benchmarks.

On Sunday, the bank posted its first- quarter profit which beat estimates of analyst. According to the company, its debt and equity trading rose, which pushed revenue to a new record. As per the reports, net income of the company fell to about 544 million euros, which was hurt by a 1.5 billion-euro charge for legal costs. Last year, the net income of Deutsche Bank was 1.1 billion euros. The bank’s common equity Tier 1 capital ratio fell to 11.1% from 11.7% last year.

Deutsche Bank has planned to retreat from about 70 countries in which it currently operates.