Deutsche Bank to cut 4,500

November 1, 2001 Posted: 0811 GMT

LONDON (CNN) -- Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest bank, said on Thursday it plans to cut about 4,500 jobs as third-quarter profit dive.

The latest round of job cuts bring the total to 7,100, or 7.3 percent of Deutsche Bank's workforce. To date, German banks have slashed more than 23,000 jobs and there are more to come.

HVB Group, Germany's second-largest bank, plans to cut 2,200 jobs and the fourth-largest bank Commerzbank announced 3,400 jobs will go.  

German banks, in particular, are under pressure to cut costs as a downturn in global markets and slowing economies weigh on their top-heavy cost structures.

Administrative costs rose to more than 5 billion in the third quarter from 4.9 billion a year ago, but were down 8 percent compared to the previous quarter's 5.5 billion in costs

Deutsche Bank on Wednesday posted a 49 percent drop in third-quarter profit on Wednesday, as it put aside more money to pay for loan defaulters. The bank wrote down a net 408 million in assets after suicide attacks on September 11 sent investments in technology and telecoms shares plummeting amid an overall market downturn.

The investment banking sector had already been suffering from slumping global markets and a sharp drop in mergers, acquisitions and share offers before the terror attacks.

Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Rolf Breuer said in a nine-month report to shareholders that he was "very confident to finish the remaining months of 2001 comparatively good."

Deutsche Bank stock, which has fallen more than 30 percent this year, slipped 0.3 percent to  61.60 in early Frankfurt trading on Thursday.