The German bank, reportedly in talks to buy a rival, has unveiled a new European strategy.

(Previous version said that de Sanctis had been appointed - he was in fact appointed last year. The latest development concerns the bank's new European strategy for its wealth business. A corrected version follows.)

Deutsche Bank, which is now understood to be in discussions about a possible merger with rival Commerzbank, has unveiled a new European strategy. This comes after it announced last year that Claudio de Sanctis, formerly of Credit Suisse, had become new European head. He took up the role towards the end of 2018. 

The Frankfurt-listed bank has hired Marco Pagliara from Goldman Sachs and Alessandro Caironi from Credit Suisse.

“Today marks a fresh starting point in our journey towards becoming the pre-eminent pan-European wealth manager. The desired outcome of this journey is clear, and it could not be any closer to the heart of Deutsche Bank Group: to achieve growth in our European home markets and to grow profitably in our businesses that have a recurring revenue profile,” de Sanctis told wealth management staff in Europe via a note.

The changes add to a number of recent hires by Deutsche Bank, including Martina Fischer, from Goldman Sachs, UHNW banker, Germany (January 2019); Claude Casavant, from UBS, head of lending & deposits Europe (November 2018); and Aditya Mishra, from Credit Suisse, to oversee the Global South Asia team in London (September 2018). 

The bank is creating one new WM Europe Core Council, replacing the two former regional councils in Germany and EMEA. This will include eight coverage leaders.

Ultimate profit and loss responsibility will reside with the bank’s six market heads in their individual market areas. They will report to de Sanctis and represent their businesses in Deutsche Bank’s respective regional governance bodies, for instance, together with the PCB representatives in the regional leadership teams in Germany:

-- Anke Sahlén, market head of Germany Central, East & West (including the senior executive team); 
-- Frank Schriever, market head for Germany North & Northwest; 
-- Stephan Jugenheimer, market head Germany South & Southwest; 
-- Roberto Parazzini, market head Southern & Western Europe, which includes Italy, Spain, France and Belgium; 
-- Marco Pagliara, market head Northern & Eastern Europe, which will comprise its businesses in the UK and the Nordics, in Luxembourg and domestic Switzerland, and in emerging Europe. He joins in June 2019 from Goldman Sachs in Zurich, where he headed the wealth management business in continental Europe and Switzerland and served as the general manager of Goldman Sachs Bank (Switzerland); and 
-- Daniel Kalczynski, market head FIM & MFO, will be in charge of the pan-European FIM proposition as well as the DOAG business. In addition, he will look after the Private Port Wealth Aggregation Solution and international desks in Germany and the Americas.

The coverage leaders will also include:

-- Alessandro Caironi, head of investment management and sales management in Europe and UHNW coordinator. He will join on 1 April and report to de Sanctis. He led capital markets sales as well as the UHNW Coverage Teams at UBS in APAC and, most recently, held the roles of European head of advisory and sales as well as head of the European UHNW coverage teams at Credit Suisse; and 

-- Caroline Kitidis, head of institutional wealth partners WM Europe.