The launch of a new strategy normally attempts to dazzle its audience with optimism. What investors in Deutsche Bank got on Monday was instead a heavy dose of bleak realism.

The headline is the big cut in targeted returns. Just a year ago when investors had given Deutsche Bank €8 billion ($8.7 billion) in fresh equity, the German lender was still promising bottom line returns on equity of 12% for 2016. Now it aspires to beat a 10% return on tangible equity- a smaller base-over the medium term.