Christian Sewing, who took on the CEO role at Deutsche Bank just four months ago, has a big job ahead.
He promised a restructuring plan in order to reverse recent setbacks and an avalanche of negative headlines. His methods, though yet to fully produce desired results, have garnered some praise from analysts even as currency crises pressure his company and the European banking community.
"The news flow we've had so far [on the restructuring] is based around discipline in cost," said Neil Smith, an analyst at Bankhaus Lampe, referring to Deutsche's past as a spend-happy company. "It's not whether they can [recover], it's how long it takes them to get there," he said.
Sewing himself quite eager to quash of the old image at the company's most recent earnings call.
"Deutsche Bank has a history of negative surprises on costs in the fourth quarter, including last year," he said. "As I made clear when I took office, that pattern ends in 2018."
He noted that the plans to reduce headcount outside of their core European client market is a positive move, as it leverages the company's core strengths. The cuts to the workforce will bring the number employees below 90,000 by the end of 2019.
Smith focused on the more frugal profile that the company is cultivating as a move in the right direction.
Bankhaus Lampe gave Deutsche a buy rating, emphasizing their confidence in a possible turnaround.
To be sure, hope in the bank is not universally observed.
Profit remained down 14% year over year for the second quarter despite the cuts, even without the pressure from the Turkish market coming to the fore. On Monday shares have fallen over 3%, after declining by nearly 5% on Friday.
The disappointing returns this year have helped drive the stock price down to historic lows, causing downgrades to come from both Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the past week.
Morgan Stanley analyst Giulia Miotto also confirmed her firm's downgrade of Deutsche from equal weight to underweight, declining to comment further.
Time will tell whether Sewing's new direction will pay off, but at present it appears to be offering a glimmer of hope.
