Speech about identity and positioning in the society

“Twenty years ago today, Alfred Herrhausen was assassinated.
His death was a terrible blow to his family. It also shocked Deutsche Bank and Germany as a whole.
Throughout Herrhausen’s life, the challenges arising from the interplay between business decisions and corporate responsibility to society as a whole were very much on his mind. This interplay has been highlighted once again by the recent financial crisis. On this day of commemoration, I’d therefore like to share some thoughts with you on “The Responsibility of a Global Financial Service Provider“ such as Deutsche Bank.

Together with his colleagues, Alfred Herrhausen, as the Spokesman of the Management Board, prepared the ground for the later transformation of Deutsche Bank into the institution we know today. He recognized the forces of globalization. He understood that, to be successful, companies would have to adapt to the changed conditions of a globalizing economy. And he pointed out the need for reform.
As a consequence, Deutsche Bank set out on a course of transformation and globalization: From being the leading German bank for business and private clients, it developed into one of the leading global investment banks with a strong private clients’ franchise.

This transformation affected not only the structure of the bank’s business, its balance sheet and earnings, but also the bank’s character and identity. It was a demanding and difficult process. In view of the market structures in our home market, however, and the global opportunities before us, it was without doubt the right path to take.

"We compete to be the leading global provider of financial solutions – creating lasting value for our clients, our shareholders and our people, and for society as a whole." That is our mission statement today, the goal every one of our employees strives to achieve.
We developed a new identity for a new era. It is shaped by our almost 140 year-long history and our German roots, as well as our global presence. Up until the 90s Deutsche Bank did 80 percent of its business in Germany. As our operations became increasingly globalized, the need arose to combine various cultures to reach a common goal. And so, from what had once been a “one culture bank,” a “one bank culture” emerged.

Today, 80 percent of our business is outside of Germany, people from more than 140 nationalities work for Deutsche Bank in 70 countries around the globe. In this context, we place great emphasis on being locally embedded in the respective societies and operate like local businesses. As a rule, our country managers have the nationality of the country they work in.

For all our diversity, we are united in our dedication to ensure the success of the bank, and in our shared commitment to performance, which we always take to mean serving our shareholders, clients and society as a whole. Our motto "Passion to Perform” is not just words – it is part of our DNA.

The international nature of our workforce is not merely a corollary of our globalization strategy. We deliberately cultivate diversity because we regard it as a great asset: Diversity helps us to better understand our many different clients around the world. It allows us to perceive risks and trends earlier. By switching perspectives we can avoid making errors of judgement.

Last but not least, we all benefit also at a very personal level from meeting and interacting with colleagues from different cultural backgrounds.


Recognizing performance irrespective of social origin, gender, religion or nationality is not merely a dictate of fairness – it also fosters independent thinking, which in turn is a prerequisite for responsible action.

Companies must issue guidelines and internal policies, define rights and obligations, and set the boundaries for its staff members’ actions. But policies and rules cannot ex ante define the right course of action to take for all situations that may arise. In the end, one’s personal sense of responsibility also plays a crucial role. Companies therefore are called upon to create a corporate culture that promotes this personal sense of responsibility.

In this respect I think it is important for management training not to be restricted to specialist knowledge. Interdisciplinary education is essential for successful management and for assuming leadership functions. Corporate leaders have a wider responsibility to bear.


Companies and banks can only operate successfully if they are fully integrated into society. And in a globalized world that means every society in which they operate. Businesses and banks are part of society and need its support. The more stable the environment in which they operate, the bigger their chances of success. And the greater the support. It is therefore in our own long-term interest to be responsible corporate citizens. To us, our foremost social responsibility is to be competitive and to grow as a company. Only in so doing can we create lasting value for all stakeholders – as an employer, a taxpayer and a sponsor of social projects.

For years now Deutsche Bank has been investing more than 80 million Euros annually and its employees have devoted tens of thousands of hours of volunteer work to supporting projects relating to community development, art and music, education as well as ecological sustainability.

In the field of education, we provide gifted young people from disadvantaged backgrounds an education commensurate to their talents, which otherwise would have been out of reach for them. We do so because we regard equal opportunity as one of the major, if not the major prerequisite of social cohesion.
In the field of sustainability I would like to mention the Solar Impulse project where we are helping to build a solar powered aircraft and develop innovative, energy-saving technologies and materials; or take the refurbishment of our corporate headquarters, a model in ecological sustainability.

All this shows we are well aware that it is in our own best interest to care about the state of the societies in which we operate, and about how they perceive our actions. That is also why we have assumed a great deal of responsibility during the financial crisis, both at the national and international levels, by helping to safeguard our financial system, putting forward reform proposals and taking quick and consistent action to put into practice many of the lessons to be learned from the crisis. And it is precisely because we are aware of the need for acceptance in society, we take recent criticism seriously that banks care too little about their clients’ interests, and that many of their products are of no value to the “real” economy.

In my opinion, these accusations are unjustified, at least in such a generalized and drastic form. The criticism is based on a distorted picture of our industry. Over the past decades, the financial sector has added significant value to the real economy – in Germany and particularly in emerging countries. These contributions outweigh by far the losses recorded in the last two and a half years of crisis. Nevertheless, the accusations do not come out of the blue, and it is up to us in the industry to prove them wrong, if we do not want to risk ultimately losing our legitimacy and the basis for our business.
We have a lot of good arguments on our side. Europe's most powerful economy and one of the world’s biggest exporters requires a bank that can service its needs around the globe. International trade cannot thrive without globally operating banks. Without extensive and complex financing models, no foreign investments can be made. Without securitizations, the supply of capital needed for growing economies becomes more difficult, as we are seeing right now. Also, the fight against climate change requires enormous investments and innovative financial products.

Don’t get me wrong: not every product that banks offered over the past years has provided a meaningful contribution to the real economy; not every financial innovation was useful and fostered prosperity. Our industry, myself included, must face this criticism.


We did not do enough in the past to explain our business to the public, to explain why investment banking in particular provides crucial contributions to growth and prosperity. And we did not make explicit the moral foundations of what we do. Here we have some catching up to do.

Let me, in this context, briefly point to the fact that the vast majority of bank employees doesn’t have anything to do with the financial crisis. The people who should be criticized are those who lacked the necessary risk ethics, by which I mean bank employees who took risks that jeopardized the very existence of their company and thus their colleagues’ jobs, their investors’ and clients’ money as well as tax revenues for society who, even worse, had to be bailed out in the end by taxpayers’ money.
In addition, the moral quality of a market economy like ours depends less on the virtue of each individual than on the quality of the overall political framework, leaving enough room for the many positive aspects of competition, but preventing ruinous behaviour.

This does not mean that individual virtue is dispensable, but rather that it can only prevail over time if it is supported by such a framework. Without laying down and enforcing uniform ground rules for every market participant, virtuous behaviour will be exploited by less virtuous competitors. Under such conditions it is impossible to compete successfully. Or, as Karl Homann, the well-known German ethics professor, put it: “Under the conditions of modern, functionally differentiated societies, ethics must be implemented within and with the economic logic and not against it.”


Banks need the approval of the society in which they operate. This is posing special challenges to a global company such as Deutsche: On the one hand we face the many different expectations of a heterogeneous, multinational public: Clients, employees, investors, and political representatives of the societies in which we do business – all come to us with their specific expectations. These are shaped by their values, which can be quite diverse and even contradictory.

On the other hand we have to observe the overall interest of the bank and its stakeholders. This is not always free of conflict. But we have to take an unambiguous position based on unambiguous values wherever we are. This can entail turning down profitable business opportunities. In any case: There can be no tolerance of illegal activity.

Our concept of responsibility also involves openly addressing conflicts connected to business decisions, making our motives clear and explaining our decisions. Only when thoughts, words and deeds are one can there be credibility. And credibility is the basis of trust.

We must have the courage to tell the truth, even if and especially when the truth is uncomfortable and to openly state the fact that there are conflicting aims in our highly complex global economy. Most of the decisions we take are not of the “either/or” kind, but demand striking a balance among different interests. Rather than evading difficult decisions, acting responsibly means responding to society’s legitimate questions and explaining why we have chosen a particular option. And, in this context: not everything that serves one’s own interests is necessarily damaging to the common good.

I wish that the different elites in Germany, who, due to the decentralized structure of the country live geographically and work further apart one from the other than their counterparts in most other countries, would make a greater effort to talk to each other instead of about each other, especially in times of crisis. Only if we examine new ideas and positions calmly and in a non-partisan way can we create the mutual understanding which is the prerequisite for finding the best solutions possible – as well as for the cohesion which democratic societies need.

Deutsche Bank has always contributed to this social discourse. Alfred Herrhausen is one of the outstanding examples of this tradition.

As a global bank we have a lot to offer here - not least our knowledge and experience as a financial services provider with global operations. Let me also mention the work of the “Alfred Herrhausen Society for International Dialogue,” which we established as a forum to discuss key issues concerning the future of our societies. Its work comprises, for example, a series of conferences in the world’s megacities, dedicated to examining the socio-economic and ecological challenges from urbanization.


Business needs society – but society also needs business. A healthy community depends on a solid material basis. Without the creation of value, public tasks cannot be fulfilled. Creating value needs profit seeking as a presupposition:
Only with sufficient profitability can we create jobs; only by making a profit can we take on risks and finance economic activity; and only with profits can we pay taxes and make our contribution to financing the communities we operate in; only by making a profit can we be a good corporate citizen.
That is why the primary focus of economic activity must be on generating a sufficient profit – in the interests of our clients, our shareholders, our staff and society as a whole.

Companies and banks that don’t earn enough to safeguard their own existence become a burden rather than a benefit to society. It is therefore in everyone’s interests for companies and banks to be as profitable as necessary to remain internationally competitive.

In a market economy, earnings targets are neither set by social consensus nor by company managers, but by the market. A global player such as Deutsche Bank has to compete globally to attract investors, and in order to be successful it has to generate returns comparable to those of its peers. Thanks above all to our capital and earnings strength, we have been able to grow, also through acquisitions, preserve jobs, pay taxes and be a good corporate citizen even during the years of the crisis.


Ladies and Gentlemen, dear colleagues:
In the public, there are many different opinions and perspectives of Deutsche Bank, some hostile and negative and with hardly any factual basis. Media attention always tends to focus on the industry leader, even more so when the company involved bears the name of the country.We have to deal with this role in a responsible and confident way.

Alfred Herrhausen identified with the market economy and the performance principle:
“Let’s rely more on market mechanisms, on individual responsibility!” he once said. Likewise, he also accepted a responsibility towards society: “In the long run, concentrating on pure economics leads to a narrow-mindedness with which managers disqualify themselves. Social responsibility unmasks all those who believe that everything outside of business is peripheral.”

Deutsche Bank will continue to fulfil its broad responsibilities as a global provider of financial services.””