Deutsche Bank CFO James von Moltke Promoted to Deputy CEO

Deutsche Bank has promoted its Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke to the role of deputy CEO, the bank announced Friday (March 25).

While continuing to serve as CFO, von Moltke will be the second of two deputies, serving alongside Karl von Rohr, who has held the position since 2018. Von Moltke has been with Deutsche as CFO for the last five years and has had a role on keeping a tight lid on costs and communicating with investors and the public.

CEO Christian Sewing said the promotion of von Moltke will give the company “the right governance structure to succeed in the long term in this time of increasing complexity and volatility.”

Deutsche Bank began a big restructuring in 2019, which involved cutting 18,000 staff and exiting some of its businesses. As Reuters wrote Friday, 2021 was the most profitable year for the bank in the past decade, having had its second consecutive annual profit after years of losses.

In February, PYMNTS wrote that federal prosecutors had dropped criminal charges against Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and four senior bankers in a “significant cartel case” by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

See also: Criminal Charges Against Deutsche Bank, Citigroup Dropped in Australian Banking Cartel Case

The case, which had been going on since 2015, was reportedly scrapped after the commission found it unlikely to be able to get convictions. This avoided what could’ve been one of the biggest white-collar criminal trials in Australia.

There were also related charges against Australia’s ANZ and two senior bankers that got dropped last year.

The case is also tied into a share placement by ANZ in Aug. 2015, and phone calls by the banks, which had underwritten the A$2.5 billion fundraising round. That included discussions about selling the remaining stock on their books.

According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the bankers’ actions were fundamentally “cartel behavior,” and the banks said the trades had been complying with Australian regulatory guidelines.