Deutsche Bank CEO Says He's Committed to U.S. Amid `Rumors'

(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing said the lender is committed to the U.S., seeking to dispel “rumors” to the contrary as the firm cuts back in some businesses there.

The bank may retreat from “a couple of small business areas,” Sewing said at a dinner the Frankfurt-based company hosted in Berlin on Wednesday evening. Still, he said, “fundamentally the U.S. is the most important market for us.”

The comments come as employees of the German lender await the outcome of the sweeping job cuts Sewing is putting into place amid a large-scale restructuring of its investment bank division. The reductions may include one-fifth of the U.S. staff, people familiar with the matter said on May 9.

Read more: The anxiety inside Deutsche's U.S. Unit

Sewing was seated next to U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell at the dinner, and in his prepared comments he also cited the importance of the U.S.-German relationship.

The CEO told investors Tuesday that Deutsche Bank will finish most of the cuts by the end of June. The bank is closing its Houston office and relocating away from Wall Street to a smaller Midtown location. It has also signaled that it will scale back U.S. rates sales and trading as well as its corporate finance business in the region.

The stock climbed as much as 0.8 percent on Thursday and traded 0.6 percent higher in Frankfurt as of 9:36 a.m.

--With assistance from Arne Delfs and Steven Arons.

To contact the reporter on this story: Naomi Kresge in Berlin at nkresge@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net, Michael J. Moore, Chad Thomas

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