Deutsche Bank plans to close nearly half of Postbank branches -Financial Times
BERLIN, Oct 30 (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank is planning to close up to half of its Postbank branches in the next two years, the German bank’s new head of private banking told the Financial Times on Monday.
The bank is prepared to axe as many as 250 out of the 550 remaining Postbank branches, after problems with its online offerings in recent months, Claudio de Sanctis told the financial news outlet.
He added that the bank’s Deutsche-branded branches will also be scaled back, without giving more details.
“At the moment, we’re dealing with a peak of problems that is going to be resolved by the end of the year,” de Sanctis told the Financial Times.
Deutsche Bank was not immediately available for comment.
Germany’s top financial regulator appointed a supervisor to Deutsche Bank earlier this month to oversee how the lender addresses customer service issues after the integration of its Postbank arm left clients complaining that they were locked out of their accounts and unable to reach call centres.
Deutsche began the acquisition of Postbank, with its millions of clients and roots in the country’s postal system, in 2008 during the global financial crisis but struggled for years to integrate it.
