A little over three years ago, Deutsche Bank’s then co-chief executives, Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain, mapped out their plans for “recalibrating” the bank. Their Strategy 2015+ initiative centred on what the pair called four “pillars”: private and business clients; corporate banking and securities; asset and wealth management; and global transaction banking.

The transaction banking unit had not been a stand-alone business until June of that year, before which it sat in the investment bank. Fitschen and Jain's singling out of the division - which provides cash management, trade finance and securities services to companies and financial institutions - was the right move at the time, says a banker working in the division today.