NewGermany's Deutsche Bank to cut back investment banking and sell Postbank in restructuring

Deutsche Bank will cut back investment banking, sell its Postbank retail chain through a public share offering and reduce costs in a restructuring plan designed to boost profits.

Germany's largest bank is under pressure to revive its performance as new regulations, legal headaches and weak markets eat into returns.

Investors must wait until Monday for details of the strategy.

Deutsche Bank said it wished "to remain a leading global bank based in Germany", but the new strategy is a step back from a previous commitment to maintain a universal platform globally offering everything from derivatives to mortgages.

Splitting Postbank but keeping the group's own-branded retail chain means the management chose the less radical of two restructuring models. Under a more dramatic plan previously considered, the lender weighed leaving retail finance entirely and becoming a pure investment and commercial bank.

"It's a very difficult and complex path," said Omar Fall, an analyst at Jefferies. "But at least they're being proactive about doing something about the structure of the business."