Sewing, a lifelong Deutsche Bank employee, will take over with immediate effect, the lender said in a statement from Frankfurt late Sunday. Garth Ritchie was promoted to sole head of the securities unit and will become president, along with Chief Administrative Officer Karl von Rohr. Cryan and Marcus Schenck, who was co-deputy CEO with Sewing, are leaving the bank.

The appointments follow weeks of intense speculation about the bank’s leadership that forced Cryan to say publicly he was committed to the role while the chairman raced to find an agreement with shareholders.

“We need a new execution dynamic in the leadership of our bank,” Achleitner said in a statement thanking Cryan for his service.

Deutsche Bank has seen three top leadership appointments in six years amid pressure from investors to improve profitability and reverse a share slump. The strategy of Germany’s biggest lender and how big a role it still wants to play in US investment banking is still a matter of contention. Cryan reduced risk and settled billion-dollar legacy misconduct cases, but failed to restore revenue growth despite raising fresh capital.

Retail banker
Sewing, who joined Deutsche Bank in 1989 as an apprentice, was most recently in charge of the unit overseeing commercial and retail banking as well as wealth management. He won plaudits for successfully negotiating job cuts in the German retail unit with the influential workers’ councils, implementing the agreement on schedule and without a strong media backlash.

Sewing also headed Deutsche Bank’s internal probe into its role into alleged money laundering at the bank’s Russian unit, the so-called mirror trades, which led to the lender shuttering its securities unit in the country.

Frank Strauss, who ran the private and commercial bank jointly with Sewing, will become sole head of that unit.