Sal Oppenheim, the Cologne-based private bank which is part of Deutsche Bank, has confirmed that a new organisational structure focusing on wealth management, which it announced in November last year, is in progress and will bring with it a number of job cuts.

While a maximum of around 330 jobs are expected to be cut, the firm said that its aim is to “avoid enforced redundancies”. Settlement, IT and infrastructure areas will be most affected, followed by the operational business areas. The agreed job cuts should be completed by the end of 2014, while the core of the restructuring measures is scheduled for 2014, the firm said.

“We are aware that implementing the job cuts that have now been agreed will be a painful process for all involved. However, the measures are necessary as they are the only way to ensure sustained profitability of our bank in wealth management. In future we will focus on our bank's traditional strengths in client advisory service and investment management,” said Dr Wolfgang Leoni, Sal Oppenheim's chief executive officer. 

The focus on wealth management for private clients and select institutional clients who want a personal advisory service from a private bank goes hand in hand with implementing a future-oriented organisational structure, the firm said.

In order to raise operational efficiency, Sal Oppenheim is carrying out a regional reorganisation and will focus on central locations in each region. Clients in the north of Germany will be supported by the firm’s office in Hamburg, while the branches in Munich and Baden-Baden will look after clients in southern Germany. Clients in Berlin and eastern Germany will be supported from the capital. In focal regions of western Germany – North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse – Sal Oppenheim will advise its clients from branch offices in Düsseldorf and Frankfurt, and its head office in Cologne. The firm’s branches in Bielefeld, Hannover, Bremen and Stuttgart will be closed.

In other news, Sal Oppenheim appointed Wolfgang Matis as chairman of its supervisory board. Matis is a member of the executive committee responsible for the asset and wealth management division of Deutsche Bank. He takes over from Dr Carsten Schildknecht, who left Deutsche Bank Group at the end of March.