Claudio de Sanctis had a rapid rise through the ranks at Deutsche Bank. But the Postbank debacle is catching up with him too.
Claudio de Sanctis, the former head of private banking in Europe at Credit Suisse (CS), swiftly rose to the top ranks at Deutsche Bank. But his role as head of private clients at the largest bank in the northern neighboring country also comes with responsibilities that are not always agreeable.
Change of Leadership With Consequences
Researchers at Germany’s «Handelsblatt» (paid article) found out that Deutsche Bank’s management board cut the bonus payments of several executives, all the way up to CEO Christian Sewing following the IT debacle at the subsidiary Postbank.
The special distributions to de Sanctis’ predecessor, Karl von Rohr, were hit the hardest, according to the report, which has not been confirmed by Deutsche Bank. The financial conglomerate failed to renew von Rohr’s contract last fall. De Sanctis, who took on the task last summer, is now apparently also affected by the bonus cuts.
No Quick Fix
The penalties imposed on the management follow the failed migration of IT data from Postbank to Deutsche Bank systems. The subsidiary bank migrated its IT to the parent company’s platform in the first half of 2023. This triggered a number of serious problems and consumer protection organizations received hundreds of complaints. Clients were temporarily unable to access their accounts and payments could no longer be processed.
«Handelsblatt» also revealed that the problems persisted right into 2024.
