Bankers Trust Chief Leaving Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank, the world’s biggest bank, said former Bankers Trust Corp. Chairman Frank Newman will leave today, less than a month after he sold the firm to the German bank for $9 billion. Newman resigned after he came under mounting pressure over Bankers Trust’s investigation of illegal transfers of customer funds, which occurred before he took over the bank three years ago. Newman, 57, who wasn’t named to the German bank’s management board after the merger, said he left because “the role originally envisioned for me will not be necessary.” “The fact that Newman didn’t get a place on the board made his position untenable,” said James Hyde, an analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co. in London. Deutsche Bank has moved quickly to put its mark on Bankers Trust, which was founded in 1903. Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank has already dismissed about 1,000 Bankers Trust employees, replacing many of them with new hires, mostly filled internally or from outside firms such as Merrill Lynch. U.S. shares of Deutsche Bank fell 63 cents to close at $58.75.