World’s highest-profile bank executive, Indian origin, Anshu Jain has announced his resignation from German bank Deutsche Bank as CEO. His Co CEO German dummy appointee -Jürgen Fitschen also announced his exit though Mr Fitchen may continue one more year. Mr Jain was one of the rarest non German CEOs of Deutsche which can be considered as the SBI of Germany.
Jain’s exit from the German bank is not related to his fault. But rather the time he was selected to lead the big bank was a bad one. Most of the big banks are severely regulated now. Deutsche faced several problems typical to many other Western banks faced in the aftermath of the post crisis hard regulation, capital enhancement and a bad rigging scandal for which the bank paid huge penalty. Early this year, British and US regulators have fined Deutsche $2.5 bn for engaging in rate rigging. None of these setbacks were due to Mr Jains’s deeds.
Anshu Jain, who was born in Jaipur and an alumni of Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce, was elected as the CEO because of his superiors skills to lead an investment bank in a global space.
His job as CEO at Germany’s top bank was never easy ever since his beginning as CEO in 2012. When the bank’s establishment searched for next CEO after Josef Ackermann, they found no way to avoid Mr Jain who according to Financial Times, was — a fiercely bright, fiercely ambitious. In a surprising move, the bank has appointed dual CEOs so as to avert the embarrassment of a non German at the helm.
Mr Jain’s rule at the bank’s top job witnessed Deutsche transforming from an ordinary German bank to a global giant. Bloomberg in 2010 mentioned that the evolution of Deutsche Bank into a global institution runs parallel with Jain’s career at the company. But he remained as an outsider in the German establishments and struggled to win acceptance in German’s patriotic financial and political communities. His lack of skill in German language added to the problem.
After Jain’s resignation, the Bank announced the appointment of Joh Cryan who is a good speaker in German language as the new Joint CEO. At the age of Fifty two, Jain’s career is slightly early to finish his profession though the industry of banking is now not in a position to attract ambitious CEOs like him.
Anshu Jain is not alone as an Indian origin CEO in leading a global bank. His predecessor is there in the US- the Nagpur born– Vikram Pandit is not exhausted after rescuing Citi Bank. But both have one thing in common that they were not natives of their adapted land and were discriminated and fell victim to partiality and low quality patriotism.
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