Ralph Orlowski/Reuters
Deutsche Bank co-chief executives Anshu Jain (R) and Juergen Fitschen.
Now executives at the Frankfurt-based investment bank are leaning more towards JPMorgan as a model to solve Deutsche's facing funding and capital problems, reports The Financial Times' James Shotter, Lauran Noonan, and Martin Arnold.
Here's the FT:
Rather than seek to become a "European Goldman Sachs", Deutsche's top executives consider JPMorgan Chase as the rival with the closest model to its chosen strategy - combining investment banking with commercial lending and retail units.
Faced with low returns, high legal fees, and heightened regulation, Deutsche executives have been mulling over five options for restructuring the bank for months, and are set to make recommendations to the board on Friday.
While there's been talk of selling off the Postbank retail unit, executives are reportedly backing away from that option over concerns about meeting funding requirements with a standalone investment bank.
One thing's for sure - whichever model they choose is bound to have a huge impact on Germans, who make up the global bank's largest market and rely on it for access to international capital markets.