Alexander Wynaendts is to take over chairmanship of Deutsche Bank
Shareholders could vote on his appointment in May

As head of the Dutch insurer Aegon (NYSE: AEG), Alexander Wynaendts led a complex European financial institution with employees around the world and a large presence in the US during a turbulent decade. This experience should benefit him as the next chairman of Deutsche Bank (DE: DBKGn).
On Friday, a committee of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank nominated Wynaendts for the management of the largest German credit institution from next year. The entire board of directors supported him at a meeting on Sunday and shareholders will vote on his appointment in May.
If elected, Wynaendts, who is relatively unknown in Germany, will be catapulted into a role as one of the country's top bankers - at a time when Deutsche Bank, after a rocky decade, is also facing a possible future merger stabilized.
The CEO of Deutsche Bank described the Dutchman in a statement to employees on Sunday, in which he announced the support of the entire board of directors for Wynaendts, as a real European and an expert in international finance.
"Alex has experience in the areas that have always distinguished Deutsche Bank: strong expertise in private customer, corporate and capital markets business as well as in asset management - and a global network," said Sewing in the memo available to Reuters.
Just months after taking office at Aegon, a company that helped the Dutch pay for funerals in the mid-19th century, 61-year-old Wynaendts led a € 3 billion ($ 3.39 billion) government bailout a restructuring when the 2008 financial crisis took its toll.
The German has lost billions of euros and has had to pay heavy fines, so that regulators feared the company was on the verge of collapse five years ago. Although the bank is now making small profits again under the new management, there are still many unfinished business.
The bank is currently working on a new strategic plan to be presented in March and has yet to deliver on its promise to cut 18,000 jobs, while analysts say the bank risks missing a key profitability target over the next year.
An important question for the entire industry is the consolidation of the fragmented banks in Europe. After talks about a merger with rival Commerzbank (DE: CBKG) were canceled in 2019, German executives are working to make the lender strong for a possible future merger.
Wynaendts, who oversaw a steady stream of acquisitions, divestments and partnerships from Canada to Mexico and from Romania to China during his ten-year tenure as Aegon boss, is expected to embrace this strategy.
According to Refinitiv data, Aegon was involved in 87 M&A deals between 2012 and 2020.
He will also be aware of the challenges of low interest rates and volatile markets that affected Aegon's capital position towards the end of his tenure with the company. Aegon's shares fell sharply during his tenure due to the financial crisis and pandemic.
Wynaendts would succeed the Austrian Paul Achleitner, another former insurance manager who previously worked for Allianz (DE: ALVG), if he resigns in May. Achleitner is credited for appointing current CEO Christian Sewing to get the bank back on track after a number of management shifts during his decade at the top.
Independently of this, Deutsche Bank announced on Sunday that it had filled the post of Chief Risk Officer and had recruited Olivier Vigneron from the French Natixis.
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