# Market Forces Axed Deutsche’s CEOs

1 Opinion June 10, 2015 Financial News ![Roy C. Smith](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/uat_025572.jpg?itok=Kn4Ckx0s) By Roy C. Smith and Brad Hintz > The co-CEOs were, of course, already under considerable pressure from regulators, labour unions and litigants, but in the end the change, so soon after the AGM, was triggered by recognition that market forces could not be ignored any longer.

Deutsche Bank’s announcement this week that its co-chief executives Anshu Jain and Jürgen Fitschen were stepping down should have come as no surprise.

At its annual general meeting on May 21, the pair’s “new” strategic plan bombed: it simply reaffirmed Deutsche’s status quo commitment to capital markets that everyone knew had failed and nearly destroyed Germany’s largest and once most esteemed universal bank. The bank’s share price dropped by 9% immediately afterwards.

Since the financial crisis, the CEOs of eight of the top 10 originators of capital market transactions have now been replaced (three of them replaced twice) with their boards keen to show accountability or the need for a strategic change of direction.

Read full article as published in [Financial News](http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2015-06-10/deutsche-jain-fitschen-cryan-comment?mod=home-news)

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*Roy C. Smith is the Kenneth G. Langone Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance and a professor of Management Practice. Brad Hintz is an adjunct professor of Finance.* ## More Opinions from Roy C. Smith

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