REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
A statue is pictured in front of the former head quarters of Germany's largest business bank, Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, January 28, 2013.
- Graduate applications for Deutsche bank rose 20% this year.
- Data collected by the Financial Times showed applications for other banks including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and UBS are also up with many increasing graduate places available.
- The figures show appetite among millennials is still strong for the jobs, even in the face of an uncertain and imperfect banking climate.
Deutsche Bank saw 110, 000 student applications for its graduate scheme this year despite management turmoil, according to data from the Financial TImes.
The numbers, up 20% in a year, show conditions at DB have not dampened ambition among millennial students to win a graduate place at the bank even in light of the sudden departure of former CEO John Cryan and 7,000 job cuts.
Applications also increased for Deutsche Bank's rivals in the UK including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and UBS, which announced an increase in its hires by 50% to 100 graduates despite the impacts of Brexit.
Barclays is also set to hire 500 graduates this year up from 450 in 2017, the FT reported.
Since the 2008 crisis graduate recruitment in the banking sector has seemed uncertain, with fewer Oxbridge and Ivy league candidates applying for jobs, in part sparked by reports of poor working conditions and increased negative publicity about the financial sector.
"We had all of the top universities pre-crisis . . . now [our demand] is more varied. We're going broader in terms of the places where we source from," Manolo Falco, Citi's head of EMEA corporate and investment banking told the Financial Times.
Falco added that efforts to promote a better work life balance has made a difference to interest and applications, although the industry is still tough. "You can't hide it; banking is a hard-working kind of industry. Even with all of what we've done, it's high intensity over long hours," he said.