Deutsche Bank CEO sees inflow of deposits in flight to quality

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank (ETR:) Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing said on Wednesday that the German lender has seen incoming deposits over the last three to four days as customers fly to quality.

The chief of Germany’s top bank was speaking at a financial conference days after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and as bank shares were falling sharply.

Sewing said it was hard to draw conclusions from a few days but said that Deutsche had seen incoming deposits “because people are doing that what is usual in these times – fly to quality”. He didn’t cite figures.

“We should also be very clear that there is in my view no similarity” of events on the West Coast and European Banks, Sewing added.

Sewing also gave a taste of developments in the first quarter, noting that fixed-income and currency trading in the investment bank would be lower than a year earlier and that the revenue at the overall investment bank was “potentially a little bit lower” than analysts are predicting.

Asked about possible mergers and acquisitions, Sewing said during the last few years his focus had been on fixing the bank from within and that “there is still lots to do”.