Deutsche Bank’s New Asia Chief Picks Singapore

With the move, Deutsche Bank joins rivals UBS and Credit Suisse in having their Asia chief executives based in the city-state. Deutsche Bank’s incoming Asia chief executive officer, Alexander von zur Mühlen, will be relocating to Singapore for his new role – not Hong Kong, where his predecessor sits.

We remain committed to our dual-hub structure in Asia Pacific, a Hong Kong-based spokesperson said about the decision. The bank previously had a regional chief based in Singapore – from 2012 to 2016, Asia co-chair Gunit Chadha was based in the city-state, while his counterpart Alan Cloete sat in Hong Kong.

Deutsche Bank’s operations in Singapore focus on commercial banking and fixed income services, while its wealth management, corporate finance and asset management desks are larger in Hong Kong. In 2019, the bank said it would be shuttering its equities sales and trading globally as part of its overall revamp.

Von zur Mühlen, who joined Deutsche Bank in 1998, is set to take charge of the firm’s Asia Pacific business when Werner Steinmüller retires from the Management Board on July 31, after three decades at the German lender.

Before being named Asia chief executive, he was appointed DB’s global head of group strategy, based in Frankfurt, in 2018, one year after being named co-head of global capital markets.