Anshu Jain, the Indian-born banker who helped Deutsche Bank transform from a largely domestic lender to a global financial titan, has died aged 59.
The City of London and Wall Street-trained Jain, who led Deutsche as co-chief executive from 2012 to 2015, suffered from stomach cancer and died Friday night in the UK, his family confirmed.
“We are deeply saddened that our beloved husband, son and father . . . died overnight after a fierce five-year battle with colon cancer,” Jain’s family said in a statement, adding that he had managed to outlive his doctors’ original prognosis by four years. “Until his last day, Anshu stood by his lifelong determination to be ‘not a statistic,'” they said.
In a statement released Saturday, Alexander Wynaendts, chairman of the supervisory board of Deutsche Bank, said: “Anshu Jain played a key role in expanding Deutsche Bank’s position in our global business with corporate and institutional investors. Today, this is not only of strategic importance for Deutsche Bank, but also for Europe as a financial center.”
A pioneer in derivatives trading, Jain joined Germany’s largest lender in 1995 from Merrill Lynch, where he founded and ran a division that covered hedge funds around the world. He rose quickly through the ranks.
After his mentor Edson Mitchell, the American who headed Deutsche’s investment bank, was killed in a plane crash in 2000, Jain became head of Deutsche’s global markets before co-leading its investment banking division in 2004.
Together, he led a period of rapid growth in which the unit generated the bulk of Deutsche’s profits and briefly helped it become the world’s largest bank. Jain took full control of the division in 2010, when he topped off then CEO Josef Ackermann.
In what was then a rare feat for an outsider with a less-than-polished German, the Jaipur-born and Delhi-raised Jain was elevated to the top position at Deutsche Bank in 2012, becoming co-chief executive alongside German Jürgen Fitschen. He had one of the highest salaries in global banking and received praise from key investors, including Larry Fink, the boss of the bank’s largest shareholder, BlackRock.
Shareholder unease over meager profits, rising costs, labor disputes and repeated clashes with the Deutsche Frankfurt branch, however, led to Jain’s departure in the summer of 2015, two years before his contract expired.
The bank was also under pressure from regulators, who were concerned about its internal culture. Deutsche was forced to pay billions of euros to settle allegations of Libor manipulation and faced investigations into money laundering and currency misuse.
After a brief step back, Jain returned to financial services in 2017 as president of US investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, while also acting as an advisor to online bank SoFi.
Christian Sewing, chief executive of Deutsche, said: “Everyone who has worked with Anshu has experienced a passionate leader of intellectual brilliance. His energy and loyalty to the bank has left a deep impression on many of us. Our thoughts and condolences go out to his wife, his children and his mother. We will honor his memory.”
