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RenTech Pulls Cash From Deutsche Bank As Insider Warns Of “Lehman-Style” Scene
With Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing set to unveil his sweeping restructuring plan to the struggling German banking behemoth’s board on Sunday – a plan that’s expected to focus on brutal cuts to DB’s investment bank – the longtime head of that unit, Garth Ritchie, has reportedly quit, according to the FT.
On Friday, DB said that Mr Ritchie would step aside “by mutual consent”, ending his more than 20-year run at the bank.
But the bank’s mass-firings of both executives and rank-and-file staff are only just beginning.
Though news of Ritchie’s departure was telegraphed well in advance (he was widely expected to depart before Sewing unveiled his turnaround plan to the bank’s board on Sunday), DB has been rocked by some unexpected news that could revive the sense of fear and panic that sent investors running for the exits back in 2016, when many believed a massive DoJ fine might sink the bank.
Echoing a mini-bank run from late 2016 when hedge funds that cleared derivatives trades with the bank started withdrawing excess cash and positions held with the lender, Renaissance Technologies, the giant hedge fund that has been one of DB’s largest prime brokerage clients, has reportedly been taking money out of its prime brokerage accounts with the German lender over the past few months, according to people familiar with the move.
According to Bloomberg, while the secretive quant fund giant remains a major client of Deutsche Bank, it has been quietly moving business to Barclays, Bank of America, and others, according to several sources who weren’t identified. Reps for both DB and RenTech declined to comment when approached by BBG reporters.
Hedge funds have been migrating away from DB for years. According to “people with knowledge of the matter”, through the end of last year, revenue from executing trades and lending securities to hedge funds was down by more than one-third compared with 2015.
Back in 2016, news of the hedge fund bank run sent DB short-term CDS soaring. Though Friday’s news hasn’t had much of an impact on the costs to insure Deutsche Bank debt, that could soon change.
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2019-07-05T15:26:50Z