BitGou: Monday Morning Briefing: Deutsche Bank begins 18,000 job cull in $8.3 billion reinvention

Deutsche bank

Deutsche Bank laid off staff in Asia as it began cutting 18,000 jobs as part of a $8.3 billion “reinvention” set to tip Germany’s largest lender into yet another annual loss. For Deutsche Bank chief executive Christian Sewing, shrinking the group’s investment bank will be the relatively easy - if expensive - part of his restructuring plan. The layoffs began in Sydney on Monday, then spread across the region, taking in the bank’s Hong Kong and Singapore trading hubs before bankers in Europe then reached their offices to find out their fates. Here are quotes from employees leaving the German lender as well as from those who have been told their jobs are safe

Reuters Breakingviews: Any cocksure child knows that owning up to mistakes is part of growing up. By that metric, Deutsche Bank is just beginning to mature. Boss Christian Sewing on Sunday effectively called time on the lender’s multi-decade attempt to create a global investment bank with a swingeing plan to shrink its trading unit and put 288 billion euros of assets into runoff. But the retreat depends on friendly markets and an absence of blunders, writes Christopher Thompson.

Business

Oil prices steadied as tensions over Iran’s nuclear program were tempered by global economic growth concerns and consequently oil demand. “The weekend was dominated by Iran, with the announcement that uranium enrichment had breached JCPOA limits being greeted by a chorus of warnings from European states not to push enrichment too far,” Vienna-based consultancy JBC Energy said. Iran said on Sunday it would shortly boost uranium enrichment above the cap, prompting a warning from U.S. President Donald Trump, who wants the pact renegotiated, that Tehran “better be careful”.

China’s central bank could cut its benchmark policy rate for the first time in four years if the U.S. Federal Reserve delivers a widely expected cut in late July, analysts say, as Chinese policymakers step up support for the slowing economy. Market watchers, however, believe the People’s Bank of China is more likely to follow any U.S. rate cut by lowering its key short-term money market rates.

Waymo is rolling out amenities to entice riders to use its self-driving taxis, creating a potential route to profitability in a money-losing industry. The Alphabet subsidiary is testing complimentary Wi-Fi in its robotaxis in greater Phoenix, where hundreds of the company’s identical, driverless minivans have been carrying paying riders since December. In late April, Waymo launched ad-free music streaming for passengers through Google Play Music, its parent company’s answer to Spotify and Apple Music.

Shipping companies, refineries, freight derivatives or diesel cracks? Investment funds are placing their bets as the shipping sector prepares for new rules limiting sulphur emissions from ocean-going vessels. Some shipowners are installing exhaust cleaning systems known as scrubbers so they can continue to use high-sulphur fuel and some are switching to low-sulphur marine diesel, but all expect a period of turbulence when the “IMO 2020” rules come in.

United States

The Trump administration has few realistic options to get a citizenship question onto next year’s census, but by keeping the issue in the public eye it could still trigger an undercount of residents in Democratic-leaning areas, legal and political experts told Reuters. A new team of Civil Division lawyers at the Department of Justice will take over handling 2020 census-related cases, a spokeswoman for the agency said, a shake-up that came as President Donald Trump pushes to include a contentious citizenship question in the decennial population survey.

Federal prosecutors in New York are expected to announce charges against financier Jeffrey Epstein related to sex trafficking of underage girls, a source familiar with the matter said, more than a decade after he avoided similar charges in Florida in a plea deal.

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that she is "appalled" at the conditions in which the United States is keeping detained migrants and refugees, including children. Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan said on Sunday that U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials knew in 2016 about a private Facebook group where border agents posted racist and misogynistic comments.

Soccer

The United States won a record-extending fourth women’s World Cup with a 2-0 victory over the Netherlands on Sunday as second-half goals from Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle confirmed their status as the leading power in the women’s game. As the U.S. began celebrating their World Cup win, FIFA president Gianni Infantino strode out on to the field with French president Emmanuel Macron. The boos ringing out from the stands at the Groupama Arena were initially directed at Macron, a reflection of the current political mood in France, but it wasn’t long before Infantino also got a reminder of the issues facing him: “Equal pay, equal pay!” chanted the U.S fans behind the goal.

The contrast in competitiveness between the United States women and men’s teams was starkly exposed on Sunday when the former won a fourth World Cup and the latter went down to Mexico in the Gold Cup final. The 1-0 loss for the men in a regional competition the U.S. had won six times before was a missed opportunity to take a big step forward under Gregg Berhalter, who was leading the team in his first tournament as coach.