Deutsche Boss Says Being A Banker Still A Conversation Killer

Deutsche Bank co-Chief Executive Anshu Jain says telling people he works in banking is a conversation-killer, as the industry fails to convince the general public that it’s changing.

'If you go to a party these days, you’re asked what you do and you say you’re a banker, people go all quiet', Jain said before a conference on Europe’s finance industry began in Frankfurt. 'We’re still the subject of anger'.

Bloomberg reports that Europe’s top bankers are meeting in the continent’s financial capital this week to discuss the industry’s future. Among the most hotly-debated topics is how bankers can regain the public’s trust, battered by taxpayer-funded bailouts and the deepest economic slump since World War II.

Carl Graf von Hohenthal, a consultant at public relations firm Brunswick Group, says there’s a perception that bankers are not doing enough to improve people’s lives after the financial crisis squeezed spending power.

'Bankers should explain why they’re relevant, they need to be part of a dialogue', von Hohenthal said in a telephone interview from Berlin yesterday. 'There’s a lot of complaining but one really has to ask what the alternative is'.

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