Deutsche Bank’s investment banking chief steps down

Deutsche Bank’s investment banking chief Garth Ritchie is leaving the German lender by “mutual agreement.”

In a press release Friday, the bank’s CEO Christian Sewing said he wanted to thank Ritchie for his 23-year service.

“Garth Ritchie has been a life-long employee of Deutsche Bank: highly engaged and committed and loyal to the firm. I would like to thank him personally for his excellent cooperation and partnership through his career and over the past 15 months as my deputy,” Sewing said.

Ritchie is to step down from the board at the end of July but will continue to advise Deutsche Bank until the end of November.

In the same statement the 50-year-old Ritchie said the bank was “now ready for further transformation,” but new leadership was needed to take his division forward.

The exit was not wholly unexpected. Deutsche Bank has been involved, or named, in a series of scandals and investigations, and investors have previously criticized Ritchie’s paycheck.

In June, the German prosecutor also identified him among others in a sprawling probe into alleged tax crimes. Deutsche Bank and Ritchie denied the allegations.

Two sources have told CNBC that Deutsche’s supervisory board will meet on Sunday to discuss a restructuring plan which could see its U.S. equities division trimmed substantially, or even closed down.

Shares of Deutsche Bank jumped more than 1% on the news Friday.

Ritchie was previously the head of the global markets division at Deutsche before being the chief of the investment banking division. Back in July 2016, when a management reshuffle saw former CEO John Cryan take over, sources told CNBC that fixed income traders were not very happy with the appointment of Ritchie, an equities specialist, as the new head of global markets.

Ritchie was also the head of equities at Deutsche Bank, taking that role in December 2008. The bank’s equities business was down nearly 60% in the first nine months of 2008 but Ritchie is said to have redesigned the business and changed it from a proprietary shop to a client-facing shop.