Deutsche Bank will cut up to 300 staff in its global markets business as part of a reorganisation of Germany’s largest bank.

The bank had not previously announced job cuts, despite making multibillion-euro losses in the fallout of the credit crunch.

The global markets division, which handles sales, trading and structuring for the investment banking business, will lose workers in London, New York, Asia and Europe. Deutsche Bank employes 6,500 people in London. A spokeswoman for the bank said that the job cuts would allow Deutsche Bank to focus its resources on more profitable areas of business. “Fewer than 300 globally will be impacted,” she said.

The division is run by Anshu Jain, who is widely tipped as the likely successor of Josef Ackermann, the bank’s chief executive, when he retires in 2010. The India-born Mr Jain is also a significant shareholder in the bank and its most important banker.

Deutsche Bank unveiled a €2.2 billion charge last October in the wake of the global liquidity freeze. Mr Ackermann said that the the bank would write down about €1.5 billion (£1.1 billion) on securities backed by residential mortgages in the third quarter, on top of a €700 million charge on leveraged loans and loan commitments.

Sources said yesterday that, despite the cuts announced, the number of staff at the bank was unlikely to have changed by the end of 2008.

On Tuesday, Citigroup said that it would cut a further 4,200 jobs, on top of 17,000 job cuts announced last April. The latest job losses are equivalent to about 1 per cent of the bank’s workforce.

At the same time, Bank of America said that it would cut 650 jobs in its global investment banking and global markets businesses. Experts have forecast that as many as 6,500 jobs will be lost in London this year as the fallout from the credit crisis continues.

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