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| Home > Topics > USA > Deutsche Bank in the US |
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Railways were, of course, the most important but not the only sector in which Deutsche Bank had commitments in North America. The list of syndicate transactions also included the electric industry, machinery construction and mining industry; prominent areas of business. The companies with which the bank maintained business relationships included Edison General Electric Company, Allis Chalmers (farming machinery), American Telephone & Telegraph Company, Anaconda Copper Mining Company, International Paper, Lackawanna Steel, Lehigh Coke, Niagara Falls Power Company, Standard Oil Company of New York and Westinghouse.
With the end of the First World War, the bank's business in the United States changed fundamentally. The flourishing movement of capital during the prewar period was a thing of the past. Germany was now the largest debtor, the United States the largest creditor nation in the world
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| Deutsche Bank representative office at Broadway 120 |
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Deutsche Bank was hesitant in restoring its American business relationships and regaining its position in the United States. Nonetheless, there was a representative office in New York until the late 1930s. An important activity of the bank was in working for the release of the German assets confiscated during the war. Numerous U.S. activities in the twenties were dedicated to settling prewar commitments. New business was rare, and when it did take place, the roles were reversed: in 1927, the bank took out a bond in the U.S.A. totaling 25 million dollars. With the global economic crisis, Deutsche Bank's foreign business increasingly lost in importance. The dramatic collapse of world trade and a protectionist economy meant that economic relationships abroad became less and less important. The Second World War destroyed the bank's business relationships with the United States.
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EAB New York Head Office |
After the war, the bank refrained from establishing its own foreign operations. Business abroad was conducted primarily through relationships to correspondent banks and supported by a few representative offices and shareholdings. The EBIC, a group of European banks, was also committed to the correspondent bank principle, and it established - with the participation of Deutsche Bank - the European-American Banking Corporation and the European-American Bank & Trust Company in New York in 1968. They offered their services primarily to European companies with business activities in the United States and gave financing assistance to American branches of European companies. In 1974, Franklin National Bank, which had become insolvent, was taken over, which opened the door to retail banking. But in 1988 Deutsche Bank discontinued its involvement with the company.
In addition, the UBS-DB Corporation was established in 1971 and engaged not only in the custody and issuing business, but also in leasing transactions and the referral of shareholdings. Its name was changed to Atlantic Capital Corporation. In 1985 it developed into Deutsche Bank Capital Corporation.
It was first in 1979 that Deutsche Bank opened a New York branch.
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Deutsche Bank New York branch 1979 |
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Directors of the New York branch 1979 |
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Deutsche Bank was thus the last of the big German banks to open a branch under its own name in Manhattan. The reason for this long delay was that it had actually been present in the form of its shareholding companies.
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DB branches in the US 2001 |
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As Deutsche Bank increasingly turned to investment banking in the 1990s, its North American business was restructured again and again.
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| Bankers Trust New York, 16 Wall Street |
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Important intermediary steps were Deutsche Bank North America Holding in 1991 and the organization of Deutsche Morgan Grenfell in 1995. However, it became clear that the bank would not be able to achieve the size necessary for this line of business through organic growth. Deutsche Bank thus began to look for an American bank it could combine with, found the New York-based Bankers Trust, and acquired it in 1999.
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