Deutsche Bank is building its office in Birmingham. Deutsche Bank is also making a push to recruit for its asset and wealth management business. Could it be that the front office expansion for the bank in the second city also applies to its asset management business?
Specialist fund management headhunters in the UK suggest that Deutsche Bank is starting to build its asset and wealth management business as part of its expansion plans for Birmingham and has already begun basing portfolio managers in the city. “The conversations I’ve been having with its in-house recruitment team is that Birmingham is increasingly a big deal for Deutsche’s asset and wealth management business,” claims one headhunter who didn’t want to be named.
Deutsche Bank declined to comment. However, the bank is certainly currently recruiting for both the front office and more functional roles for asset management in its Birmingham office.
It’s hiring for both portfolio manager and assistant portfolio management positions related to its ‘passive asset management business unit’, based in Birmingham. This division encompasses Deutsche’s exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded commodities business as well as other products such as systematic funds and institutional mandates.
The team has around 50 people working on manufacturing the products and 35 distribution professionals and runs around €100bn in assets under management.
Deutsche’s ‘experiment’ of shifting front office investment banking jobs to its Birmingham office, employing hundreds of traders at a fraction of the cost of basing them in London, has been deemed a success. The bank employs ‘low touch’ traders, booking trades for over 500 clients previously served through London, and has reportedly increased revenues by 150%. It’s likely to finish 2014 with 170 front office investment banking staff in the city.
Other banks could follow suit, which makes Deutsche’s decision to base portfolio managers in Birmingham all the more significant. However, like the trading team – which uses electronic systems to book trades for smaller clients on non-complex products – the portfolio management roles in Birmingham also seem less high-end than those based in London.
Candidates will need knowledge of both equity and fixed income markets, will be involved in “portfolio construction and trade implementation”, but also “implementation of the portfolio management circuits and processes” as well net asset value (NAV) calculations and supporting IT developments.
However, a CFA is considered an advantage and a need for experience of VBA suggests a more quantitative bent to the job.
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