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Dresdner bundles private, business units
German bank bundles units in search of home-front profits.
Dresdner Bank says it’s re-aligning its business model in the
name of profitability and growth. Late last week the
Frankfurt-based megabank came out with a plan to bundle its
private-client and business-service units and to combine its
corporate banking division with Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein
(DKW), its investment bank.
Late in 2004, as Dresdner continued to feel the pinch of several
wretched years in a row, it set out a plan to “re-conquer the
future” by positioning itself as “the leading European integrated
financial-service provider.” Until recently the main result of
this new resolve to concentrate on European Union (E.U.) markets
was the sale of its Latin American private bank to UBS and its
re-absorption of the corporate and investment banking parts of
its Latin American subsidiary into its German operations.
Zu Hause
Dresdner lost about $2.3 billion in 2004, a slightly worse result
than in 2003. Dresdner’s 2005 numbers haven’t come out yet.
Now, in addition to concentrating on home markets, Dresdner is
putting its private- and business-banking units under one
organizational umbrella. Stephan-Andreas Kaulvers will lead this
division’s efforts in Germany. Andreas Georgi will steer its
course in all other markets, with particular emphasis on foreign
markets within the E.U.
From a wealth-management perspective, these developments suggest
that Dresdner is keener on gathering assets in or near its
backyard than on chasing them clear across the globe. Over the
past five or six years European governments have passed laws to
encourage the repatriation of private assets from foreign banking
havens – read Switzerland.
Swiss banks – UBS most notably – have responded by going on an
international shopping spree to offset dwindling foreign flows
into home-market accounts.
In addition to its wealth-management re-org, Dresdner is putting
corporate and investment banking in a single silo under Stefan
Jentzsch. DKW CEO Andrew Pisker resigned as soon as word of that
came down on Friday.
Pisker says in a press release that he has “long supported”
the integration of DKW with Dresdner’s corporate banking unit and
he says he wishes Jentzsch “every success.”
Dresdner is part of the Frankfurt-based Allianz Group of
financial-service companies. –FWR
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