Deutsche Bank's ex-Citi head of M&A is thriving as revenues rise 60%

Alison Harding-Jones is a fan of Andrea Orcel. Last year, she told Financial News Orcel was the best boss she'd ever had. In her new job as head of M&A at Deutsche Bank, she is doing him proud. 

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Harding-Jones worked with Orcel at UBS but joined Deutsche Bank from Citi in January 2024. Under her watch, Deutsche Bank's M&A revenues have risen 58% so far this year compared to last. This is more than at any rival bank to report so far.   

Harding-Jones is one of the most senior women in global M&A. The increase may be partly due to her own abilities, but she's been helped along by her hyper-positive boss, Mark Fedorcik and by his boss, Fabrizio Campelli. Campelli has been on a hiring spree and added at least 50 bankers last year. Today, Deutsche said its M&A business has benefited from "prior year investments," which presumably refers to this. 

In the third quarter, Deutsche's M&A revenues were up 32% year-on-year, putting it on a par with Harding-Jones' former employer, Citi. Its Q3 fixed income trading revenues were up 11%, making it best in class and confirming that something bad seems to have occurred in Goldman Sachs' rates business. Deutsche said its rates revenues declined too, and attributed its fixed income trading success to credit and distressed credit, suggesting it's a good year for Chetan Shah, again.  

Rising revenues have helped drive a 32% increase in profits in Deutsche's investment bank in the first nine months of this year. Some, but not all, of this seems to be feeding into pay, which is up 8% while Deutsche's front office headcount in the investment bank is only up 6%. Cost-cutting in the business seems to be fizzling out: spending on restructuring and severance in the investment bank was down to €18m in the third quarter, from €27m last year. 

Deutsche Bank today also confirmed that most of its expensive bankers are traders are in London and New York, despite Brexit: 40% of the costs in its investment bank are incurred in sterling; 32% are incurred in US dollars. Only 11% are in euros, with the remaining 16% in other currencies.  

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