Deutsche Bank's results suggest it has the wrong bankers for the times

Deutsche Bank's third quarter results are out today, and while the German bank's fixed income traders are thriving, its M&A bankers are not.

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In fixed income sales and trading, Deutsche's revenues were up 19% year-on-year in the third quarter, thanks to what the bank said was a strong quarter for both macro products and credit trading. This was close to being a best-in-class performance: only JPMorgan did better, with revenue growth of 20%. As befits its passion for winning the Euromoney FX rankings, Deutsche also added this feat as evidence of the strategic success of its investment bank. 

In M&A advisory, though, Deutsche's bankers did worse than peers. There, third quarter revenues declined 3% year-on-year, which was a bottom-scraping performance. At Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, for example, M&A revenues were up 60% and 53% respectively. At UBS, which also reports today, they were up 47%.

Globally, Refinitiv says Deutsche Bank ranks outside the top 20 for M&A this year. Damningly, it even ranks outside the top 10 in Europe.  

What gone wrong for Deutsche Bank's M&A team? A focus on Europe rather than the US will not have helped: Dealogic notes that European M&A revenues are up 16% this year, while US revenues are up 44%. However, Deutsche itself suggests it's more than this: the bank says its M&A business suffered in the third quarter, "as the industry fee pool moved away from our areas of strength."

In other words, Deutsche has the wrong bankers for the moment.

Technology, healthcare and finance (FIG) have been the big growth sectors for deals in 2025. However, even though Deutsche's EMEA FIG bankers have gained considerable market share this year, insiders say Deutsche Bank has historically been strongest in areas like industrials and business services. There are already signs of a wider shakeup: Henrik Johnson, the former head of global capital markets, left earlier this month after Mark Fedorcik, the former co-head of the investment bank, left in February. 

The German bank says the pipeline is stronger for the fourth quarter, but for the moment it looks a bit like DB might need some new technology and healthcare bankers. That's awkward after it hired 115 bankers last year and 125 bankers in 2023, including over 100 managing directors. This was supposed to be the year that they start to perform.

Patience may be required. "M&A takes time," says one insider. "Historically, it's been a revolving door." 

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