INTRODUCTION
At the beginning of 1870 a small group of men who combined business experience withenormous enterprise decided to set up a German export bank based in Berlin. This newFinancial Institution was named simply ?Deutsche Bank?. Its founding charter wasapproved on 10 March 1870 by ?supreme decree of His Majesty the King of Prussia?. lnthe period of 1871-1873 the Bank opened first branches outside Germany, in London,Shanghai and Yokohama.Now the Bank has 256.000 shareholders with 58% belonged to Institutional andCompanies Investors, 39% belonged to individuals and the Bank staff own 3%. DeutscheBanks half year results for 1997 saw net income rise by 27.5% to DEM 1,5 billion.Earnings per share rose by DEM 0.60 to DEM 2.90 with return on equity before taxesrising to l8.6%. This increase can be attributed to the buoyant performance of the equityand foreign exchange markets with substantial exchange rate movements impactingpositively on earnings and increased expenses. Return on equity before tax increased 3.4percentage points to 17.1%, while the cost/income ratio of just under 72% is roughly on apar with comparable multinational universal banks. The Group?s capital and reserves grewto DEM 29.7 billion after 1,2 billion had been transferred to retained earnings.To run its operation, the Bank is classified into five divisions ; three business divisions andtwo service divisions. The three business division are Retail and Private BankingDivision, Corporate and Institutional Banking, and Investment Banking. The twoservice divisionsare Group Services and Staff Divisions.