Christian Sewing, the newly appointed chief executive of Deutsche Bank, has sent a memo to staff outlining the "tough decisions" the German lender has made, after unveiling a strategy to retreat from its Wall Street ambitions.

On April 26, the bank revealed a three-stage plan to retrench its investment bank in the US and Asia to instead focus on European clients. Sewing told Deutsche employees that the corporate and investment banking results are "under pressure" and that there is "no denying that the environment is very challenging".