Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest bank, is seeking acquisitions in Europe including Switzerland and plans to hire in Asia to increase business with wealthy clients, said Bloomberg.

The Frankfurt-based bank, which employs about 700 people in Asia, aims to add 200 this year in the region and at least the same amount in 2009, Pierre de Weck of private wealth management, told the news service in an interview.

Deutsche Bank is investing in its “stable” businesses such as private wealth management to offset a slowdown in investment banking. The turbulence on the securities and foreign exchange markets will make it “more of a challenge” to reach the division's target of €500 million ($776 million) in pretax profit this year, Mr De Weck said.

Deutsche Bank bought UK wealth manager Tilney Group in 2006 for an undisclosed price to add about €10 billion in assets under management and more than 15,000 wealthy clients. Acquisition targets need to be at least as large as Tilney to make sense, Mr De Weck said. He said there are no wealth managers to buy in Asia.

The German company is hiring relationship managers and product specialists in Asia to meet the target of boosting assets under management by 25 per cent annually, Mr De Weck said. It currently manages about €25 billion in the region, or about 14 per cent of its worldwide assets. Deutsche expects this year to attract worldwide more than the €13 billion in net new money achieved in 2007, he added.