Achleitner has invited the supervisory board to an "Update Call", the sources said on Saturday on condition of anonymity, adding the possibility of a major announcement could not be ruled out.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank fell further behind its Wall Street rivals in 2016, lagging their strong rebound in bond trading in the last three months of the year and increasing pressure on CEO John Cryan ahead of an expected strategy update this spring.
Troubled German banking giant Deutsche Bank today asked for patience after reporting its second annual net loss in a row, saying it was laying the foundations for durable success in the future.
Deutsche Bank hiked the amount of money it has set aside to cover the legal bill for its numerous missteps of the past. Litigation reserves rose to 5.9 billion from 5.5 billion euros at the end of June.
The organisational change, launched in October last year by the then new chief executive John Cryan, aimed to slash costs by cutting staff, overheads and selling off some non-core businesses at Germany's largest lender.
German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel has lashed out at Deutsche Bank's handling of its troubles, saying "irresponsible" managers had put thousands of jobs at risk.
However, Deutsche shares fell almost eight percent to another record low, adding to the sense of crisis around the bank triggered by a USD 14 billion demand from the US authorities for misselling mortgage-backed securities.
On Thursday, a Bloomberg report raised concerns that a handful of funds are less willing to do business with the struggling firm. The report, citing a source and review of an internal document, said that a small number of the hedge funds that do derivatives business with the German bank have cut their exposure.
John Cryan's remarks will likely spur further discussion about the future of the struggling bank, although he was quick to throw cold water on reports that Deutsche examined a merger with Commerzbank - which is partly owned by the German state.
Its second-quarter net income was down 98 percent from the same period in the previous year, to 20 million euro (USD 22 million), while revenues were down 20 percent to 7.4 billion euro.
John Cryan, Chief Executive of Deutsche Bank AG announced 54-year-old Chadha's decision to leave the bank after spending 13 years in various capacities, including nearly a decade as the chief executive of India, in an e-mail to employees.
The group posted a revenue decline of 22 percent year-on-year to 8.1 billion euros which it said "reflected a challenging environment and the impact of strategic decisions to downsize and exit certain businesses."
The group said it would repurchase up to USD 5.4 billion of its own outstanding bonds, adding that its liquidity position is comfortable enough to carry out the buyback.
In a short statement late yesterday and subsequently in a letter to employees, the bank -- whose shares have plummeted by nearly 40 percent since the beginning of the year -- said that it is financially "rock solid" and has more-than-sufficient means to pay coupons on its riskiest debt both this year and next year.
Revenue at its Corporate Banking and Securities business rose 2 percent to 3.2 billion euros, helped by higher revenue in rates, credit and distressed and emerging markets, Germany's largest lender said in a statement on Thursday.
Deutsche Bank said on Wednesday it was targeting a reduction of its risk-weighted assets to about 320 billion euros (USD 349 billion) by end-2018 from 416 billion euros at the end of June - towards the top end of analysts' expectations.
That would bring the group's workforce down to around 75,000 full-time positions under a reorganisation being finalised by new Chief Executive John Cryan, who took control of Germany's biggest bank in July with the promise to cut costs.
The bank reported pretax profit of 1.2 billion euros in the second quarter, up 34 percent on the year and just slightly below expectations. Litigation charges of an equal amount - 1.2 billion euros - burdened the group's bottom line.
Anshu Jain is the second Indian to resign from a global bank after Vikram Pandit who stepped down as the CEO of Citigroup in 2012.