Deutsche Bank Folds Bankers Trust Business Into Its Global

Deutsche Bank AG has reorganized its global institutional services division after buying Bankers Trust Corp.

The division, which combines the product base of Bankers Trust with the "global strength" of Deutsche Bank, will handle global cash management, custody, investor services, and corporate trust and agency services, a bank spokesman said.

Just over two weeks old, the new Frankfurt-based Deutsche has $821 billion of assets. It provides custody and investment services for institutional investors including banks, mutual funds, insurance companies, finance companies, and corporations. Deutsche has $3.9 trillion of custody assets under administration, including $1.3 trillion of cross-border assets.

"Scale is very important in the custody business because of declining fees," the Deutsche Bank spokesman said, and scale makes it easier to fund "huge investments in technology."

Had the units been combined last year, revenues would have topped more than $1.35 billion. The new division employs 7,000 people in 30 countries.

Mary Cirillo, 52, who ran global institutional services at Bankers Trust since 1997, heads the new division. She was not available for comment.

According to Rajeev Agarwal, a senior research analyst with TowerGroup, a research and consulting firm in Needham, Mass., Deutsche Bank had a larger cross-border custody business, while Bankers Trust was a bigger player on the domestic custody front.

Deutsche Bank had about $700 billion of cross-border assets under administration at yearend, while Bankers Trust had about $425 billion, he said. Deutsche Bank had only $900 billion of domestic assets under administration at yearend, and Bankers Trust had $1.9 trillion.

"It makes perfect sense for them to come together, from this perspective," Mr. Agarwal said.

Other major custody players include Bank of New York, which has $5.2 trillion of assets under administration; Chase Manhattan Corp., with $5.2 trillion; and State Street Corp. of Boston, with $5 trillion.

The global institutional services division reports to Deutsche Bank's global technology and services group, which is supervised by Hermann-Josef Lamberti, a member of Deutsche's board.

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