The parade of departures from Deutsche Bank’s investment bank division continued on Monday with Richard Herman, the global head of fixed income and currencies, sending a memo to employees that he’s resigning after two decades at the firm at the firm to pursue outside interests.
According to Bloomberg, Elad Shraga, Deutsche Bank’s chief of structured finance, is also leaving after 15 years at the bank to start his own fund.
Sources at DB confirmed that Tom Humphrey, the chief of corporate banking and securities in the Americas, will become the interim head of credit and report to Colin Fan, co-head of the Frankfurt-based lender’s investment bank.
The bank also announced the other heads of the fixed-income business will also be reporting to Fan, including Ahmet Arinc, the head of foreign-exchange; Sam Wisnia, the head of rates in Europe, and Tom Hartnett, his counterpart for the Americas; as well as Michael Ormaechea, Asia Pacific head of fixed income and currencies.
Statement from Richard Herman
“For a short period of time at least, to quote Samuel Jackson in ‘Pulp Fiction,’ I’m going to ‘walk the earth,’” Herman noted Monday in a memo announcing his resignation. “This is an entirely personal decision.”
The 1994 Quentin Tarantino hit “Pulp Fiction” includes a line from Samuel Jackson who tells his partner that he’s retiring from his job as a hitman. Jackson says he’ll “Walk the earth, meet people, get into adventures. Like Caine from ‘Kung Fu.’’’
When contacted by the media, the contents of the memo were confirmed by a spokeswoman at Deutsche Bank in New York.
Richard Herman – Deutsche Bank shrinking IB operations
Of note, Deutsche Bank disclosed plans back in April to reduce the size of its investment bank and sell off a few consumer operations. Based on a recent company presentation, both debt sales and trading operations will receive more investment in the future as the firm seeks to increase profits.
