FRANKFURT // Deutsche Bank is on the lookout for mature, tech-savvy women who it thinks will be better team players to help change its corporate culture and rebuild its reputation after the financial crisis.
The bank is being forced to rethink the way it does business after short-term bonus incentives led to risky deals that hurt profits. Deutsche is also being probed by regulators over possible rigging of the Libor benchmark international lending rate and for the way it sold toxic assets to investors.
"You could say having trustworthy bankers is enough to rebuild trust in the banking industry," said Stephan Leithner, the head of human resources and compliance at Germany's flagship lender. "It is not enough. In future, you need to have other qualities.
"Let me be provocative: the banker of the future will be more female, more international, older, more team oriented and more mobile, and needs to enjoy working with technology," Mr Leithner told a seminar for young high-potential bankers in Frankfurt this week.
Deutsche Bank said in September that by 2018, it wanted to raise the proportion of female staff in senior leadership positions to 25 per cent, from about 17 per cent last year. It is also seeking to raise the proportion of women in overall leadership positions to 35 per cent by 2018, from about 29.7 per cent in 2011.
"In many situations, female staff contribute toward team orientation, partnership and long-term sustainability," Mr Leithner said.
Deutsche's move to promote female employees comes as Kristina Schroeder, Germany's family affairs minister, renewed her push to introduce a quota for women in management.
Mrs Schroeder has proposed a so-called flexible quota legally obliging companies to set their own benchmarks. Sanctions would be imposed if they missed them.
Deutsche Bank will also tend to employ older, better educated staff, Mr Leithner said.
"Bankers need to be more educated and spend more time learning. It means that many people will be asked to reinvent themselves."
Technological know-how is growing in importance, Mr Leithner added, as clients were demanding access to bank services over different technological platforms and new regulations were forcing lenders to raise risk-management capabilities and control systems.
Staff who are international and have moved around in different departments have good opportunities at Deutsche, Mr Leithner said.
Last month, the Frankfurt-based lender, which has about 100,000 employees, said it would cut 1,993 jobs by the end of the year and overhaul its businesses.
* Reuters
