Howard Topf, the recently appointed head of the Direct Securities Services (DSS) business at Deutsche Bank, has left the bank.
The news follows the appointment of former HSBC and Citi securities services maven Satvinder Singh as global head of the trust and securities services businesses, effectively in succession to Dinkar Jetley, who joined J. P. Morgan earlier this year. It is understood that Topf is not leaving the bank immediately, but is staying on to ensure an orderly transition of the business to Satvinder Singh.
As it happens, Topf was appointed to run DSS by Dinkar Jetley after he had failed to persuade Roger Harrold to relocate to London.
Topf spent 23 years at Deutsche and Bankers Trust, which was acquired by the German bank in 1999, earning the respect of the new owners for the growth of the corporate trust business in particular. He became head of the Global Transaction Bank (GTB) in the Americas before moving to London as head of DSS last year.
Despite the impression that the three individuals – Jetley, Topf and Singh – either performed or will perform exactly the same role, there are differences. Jetley had responsibility for cash clearing, corporate trust and ADRs as well as custody, fund services and (since the addition of the former Dresdner Bank third-party lending group) securities lending, whereas Topf was not running ADRs or fund administration or cash clearing. Singh, whose principal challenge is to find a way of building or buying the German bank back into “global custody,” will be in charge of fund administration but not cash clearing.
Werner Steinmuller, a member of the executive committee of the bank and head of Global Transaction Banking, is also expected to announce an internal promotion to take over some of the day-to-day work of Howard Topf, freeing Satvinder Singh to focus on strategy. Obvious candidates for the role include Stephen Lomas (global head of custody and clearing) and Michael Aschauer (global head of sales and relationship management).
(DSH)