In June 2015, John Cryan was appointed chief executive of Deutsche Bank, at the height of the Libor rate-rigging scandal. Hopes were high that he could turn the bank around.
Two years on, Deutsche Bank’s return on risk-weighted assets is the worst in our database of 11 top banks (Let’s ignore Cryan’s excuse of a write-down of deferred tax assets resulting from last year’s US tax reform act – this affected other banks that still made a profit). Meanwhile, Deutsche’s dividend has been slashed by 85 per cent in two years. Small wonder that the company has lost 26 per cent in market value this year alone.