Deutsche Bank to cut 7,000 jobs as it pursues profits

BERLIN, Germany - In a bid to restore profitability, Germany’s biggest lender, Deutsche Bank has announced plans to cut more than 7,000 jobs.

Deutsche Bank said in a statement that it would reduce global staffing levels from just over 97,000 to "well below 90,000.”

The move comes after the company conducted a review of its business recently and has now said that the number of jobs in its equities sales and trading business are being cut by a quarter.

Currently, the bank employs 8,500 people in the U.K. but the lender has not stated which countries would be affected by the job cuts.

In Europe, Deutsche Bank employs about 66,000 people - including 42,000 in Germany, 21,000 in Asia and about 10,000 in North America.

Last month, the bank had already flagged up that job cuts were on the way.

The bank’s chief executive Christian Sewing had stated at the time that the job cuts would be "painful but regrettably unavoidable.”

Making the announcement about the job cuts on Thursday, Sewing said, "We remain committed to our Corporate & Investment Bank and our international presence - we are unwavering in that. We are Europe's alternative in the international financing and capital markets business. However, we must concentrate on what we truly do well."

At the end of February, the bank reported an annual loss of 500 million euros.

That followed losses of 1.4 billion euros in 2016, and 6.8 billion euros in 2015 after restructuring and litigation costs.

The job cut announcement on Thursday came ahead of Deutsche Bank's annual shareholder meeting.