Deutsche Bank's distressed debt traders are not receiving a CFO shoutout this quarter

This time last year, distressed debt traders at Deutsche Bank were having a great time. CJ Lanktree had just returned from Solus Asset Management to head the distressed business, which made around $200m in the third quarter of 2025, prompting a special shoutout from the CFO in the results call.

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This year, things are a bit different. Deutsche Bank’s distressed debt traders are not thriving. Fixed income sales and trading revenues at the bank, excluding financing revenues, fell 11% year-on-year in the third quarter, to €1.43bn, and were up just 2% in the first nine months. For this, Deutsche blamed “the non-recurrence of a very strong credit trading performance in the prior-year quarter, specifically within the distressed business.”

There are new favourites instead. Emerging markets traders got a shoutout from CFO Raja Akram this year. Fixed income financing is also doing well - revenues there were up 10%. Financing hedge fund trades and others through the prime broking team now accounts for 40% of Deutsche's total fixed income revenues, up from 35% last year.  

They may still get paid. Deutsche Bank spent an extra 3% on compensation in its investment bank in the third quarter, amounting to an additional 6% per head by our calculation after back office cuts earlier this year. Some of that may go to the equity capital markets bankers who increased revenues 63% in Q3.

If you want to work for Deutsche, the bank is hiring. 203 people were added to front office functions in the investment bank in Q3, even as 464 operations staff were cut over the past year. Additions earlier this year included new emerging market traders like Thomas Fitzpatrick and Christopher Staudt in New York. They may also get the big bonuses for 2026.

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