Deutsche Bank’s head of human resources to leave after compliance probe

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Deutsche Bank’s global head of human resources is leaving Germany’s largest lender after the launch of a compliance probe into an ill-timed purchase of the company’s bonds earlier this year.

In a note to staff seen by the Financial Times, Michael Ilgner informed Deutsche’s employees that “I have made the decision to leave the bank and hand over my responsibilities at the end of July”, adding that now was “the best time for me to pursue external opportunities”.

The transaction of the bonds appeared to be at odds with the bank’s internal compliance rules forbidding employees from buying Deutsche’s own securities in the eight weeks before its quarterly results are released.

The 52-year-old former professional water polo player has been in charge of the workforce of close to 90,000 since March 2020, when he joined from a German sports charity with 50 full-time employees.

At the time, Deutsche was trying to axe 18,000 jobs by 2022 but only managed to deliver less than half of those cuts. In April, the bank said that it would step up its cost-cutting initiative, announcing that 800 senior jobs in back-office roles would be axed “immediately” this year.

Ilgner had become the target of an internal compliance probe after buying €201,000 worth of Deutsche bonds just over a week before the lender released its first-quarter results.

In a joint statement, chief executive Christian Sewing and chief operating officer Rebecca Short said Ilgner “brought a valuable external perspective to our people strategy”, adding that he reshaped the bank’s talent development and performance management.

The bank declined to comment on the compliance probe.

In April, it said that it took its internal compliance rules “very seriously” and that any potential violation would be investigated “irrespective of hierarchy”. “If and to the extent merited, we will take appropriate consequences”, the bank said back then.

Ilgner did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A person familiar with the matter said there was no evidence that Ilgner had acted in bad faith or sought to exploit insider information when he purchased the bonds. They added that such behaviour usually was not grave enough to trigger a termination.

When Ilgner’s appointment was announced in late 2019, the bank said that he was “designated to join the management board when the regulatory requirements are met”.

However, this plan was silently dropped by the bank. In April, Ilgner lost his direct reporting line to Sewing as Short was made the most senior executive in charge of HR.

One of Ilgner’s signature projects was the introduction of ambitious gender diversity targets. Meeting them requires appointing women to about 50 per cent of vacant senior management positions.

While 46 per cent of Deutsche’s employees are female, women account for only 17 per cent of their most senior non-executive leaders. Deutsche wants to lift that to 30 per cent by 2025.

Ilgner told the FT in 2021 that “greater diversity among senior executives is a business necessity for us”.

The bank said it was looking for a successor internally and externally, adding that Andrea Cozzi and Volker Steuer “will lead HR on an interim basis”.