With a “very strong” capital base and “record” liquidity levels, “we are very well prepared, if something external happens,” Achleitner told the weekly. Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing has the team and the personality to lead Germany’s largest lender into a “new growth phase.”

Deutsche Bank is closing out a rough 2018, with the stock declining 56%. Amid a sputtering turnaround, the dramatic images of police officers descending on the company’s Frankfurt headquarters last month in a money-laundering probe was just the latest dark cloud.

Despite all the trials and mounting investor criticism, Achleitner plans to stick it out. “The shareholders trusted me with a mandate until 2022. I stand by that responsibility,” he said in the interview.