Deutsche Bank Exec Sees Asset, Wealth Unit as Growth Engine

(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest lender, is relying on its money-management businesses to bolster growth, said Michele Faissola, the unit’s head.

“Our ambition is for wealth and asset management to be a growth engine,” Faissola, 46, told reporters today in London. “We are on track to deliver our goal.”

Deutsche Bank is counting on Faissola to help boost profitability by 2015 as co-Chief Executive Officers Anshu Jain and Juergen Fitschen grapple with a slump in fixed-income revenue, tougher capital rules and potential fines arising out of industrywide investigations into the alleged manipulation of interest rates, currencies and gold.

Faissola, who previously worked in investment banking, was appointed to overhaul the combined asset and wealth businesses in June 2012, shortly after the company abandoned talks regarding a possible sale to U.S. money manager Guggenheim Partners LLC. After selling some parts of the unit it’s moved from being a “construction site” to a business that’s in “very good shape to grow,” Faissola said at the start of a two-day media presentation.

Deutsche Bank hired executives for institutional client and private-banking services in the U.S, and is also expecting growth in Asia, Faissola said.

The asset and wealth management unit had “great momentum” in the second quarter after 2.6 billion euros ($3.5 billion) of net new money in the first three months of the year. Clients withdrew 19.7 billion euros in the second half of last year.

The unit oversaw 934 billion euros for individual and institutional clients as of March 31, according to a company presentation in April.

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